In the lead-up to a gun-control vote, family members of victims of the Newtown, Connecticut, massacre have fanned out across Capitol Hill to pressure lawmakers. President Obama flew back with the families to Washington after speaking in Connecticut Monday night. Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut expressed optimism their pleas for gun control will impact the vote.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal: “They are a call to action, and we’re going to be counting on them to be meeting with our colleagues, many of them undecided at this pivotal time in our country’s history. And I’m very hopeful that they will help us overcome the obstacles that have been raised. We can break the stranglehold that special interests, like the NRA, have imposed, if the majority of American people — and the majority want commonsense measures to stop gun violence — are heard and heeded by the Congress. These voices and faces from Newtown are the call to action from this unspeakable, unimaginable tragedy that we have suffered, and they are powerful and eloquent beyond any words that we can command.”