Though the senator has not lost his love for his annual walk, he has noticed a changes over the decade he’s been doing it. Political polarization and social atomization – both topics of the book Murphy recently published – occasionally manifest in interactions with residents.

“There are just a lot of people today that believe the other party is the enemy,” Murphy said. “And I don’t think that was the case 10 years ago, as much.”

Murphy described one interaction with a man at a Dunkin Donuts Wednesday morning.

“He’s like, ‘You’re a communist,'” Murphy recounted. “And I couldn’t get him into a conversation. He just shut down.”Undeterred, Murphy actively sought out another potentially acrimonious encounter when he decided to visit a Waterbury gun shop along his route.

“I don’t often walk by gun stores,” Murphy said. “And, you know, the point of this walk is to talk to people who both agree with me and disagree with me.”

Disagreement was exactly what Murphy found when he entered Arcana Arms. William Tyler, the holder of the shop’s license, questioned Murphy, who has built a national profile as an advocate for stronger gun control laws.

Murphy requested News 8’s cameras not accompany him on his stop into the gun shop – preferring the candid atmosphere of a one-on-one conversation without a large television camera looming nearby. But both Murphy and Tyler recounted their talk afterward.

Tyler said he was initially surprised to see Murphy on the security camera that watches over the shop’s entrance. Tyler recognized the senator, dressed casually in shorts and a t-shirt, by the weathered UConn baseball cap that has become one of Murphy’s sartorial signatures.

With a laugh, Tyler said he figured the senator was not there to purchase one of his custom-built firearms.

“It’s not like we’re a bakery where he can come in and say, ‘Oh, the pie is so nice,'” Tyler said. “Like, I know he doesn’t like the pie that we make.”

The “pies” Tyler crafts are guns specifically modified to fit the parameters of the strict assault weapons ban imposed by the state legislature after the Sandy Hook school shooting.

Though Tyler is clearly passionate about his work, he and other Connecticut gun enthusiasts would prefer not to have to rely on specialized engineering to own AR-15-style rifles and other firearms with features banned by Connecticut law.

“Why are the citizens of Georgia allowed to do things that we are not allowed to do in Connecticut by simple virtue of the magic soil we live in Connecticut?” Tyler said. “Doesn’t make sense.”

Murphy has long supported the type of gun bans implemented in Connecticut. He was serving in the U.S. House at the time of the Sandy Hook massacre. His district included Newtown, and he was among the public officials who rushed to one of the town’s firehouses where families where first told their loved ones were killed in the shooting.

In his conversation with Tyler, Murphy sought to find some degree of consensus.

“I just try to find where our common ground is,” the senator said. “I left him my card. I took his card. And I said, ‘Listen, I’d be happy to talk to you about how to make the assault weapons ban make more sense.'”

The two men found common ground on the issue of background checks.

“We’re all for universal background checks, even expanded background checks,” Tyler said. “We’ll concede the pistol permit. We’ll concede the training.”

“I just try to find where our common ground is,” the senator said.