U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal was looking relaxed if a bit tired when I visited him at his Washington Senate office the week of  the March for Our Lives gun-control rally that attracted some 800,000 people to the nation's capital last month.

Behind his desk sat a Henry Ward Ranger painting, and on a bookshelf to the side was a photo of him with former President Bill Clinton, along with scattered family images, a gavel and some donkey figurines representing the Democratic Party. As usual, there wasn't a hair out of place, though he sat down near me in the immaculately kept office surprisingly without his customary suit jacket, donned only for a few photos later.

Blumenthal was hanging out at his office before a big vote on the omnibus spending bill that passed later that night. But his real interest seemed to lie in the gun-control rally that was about to unfold in Washington on a beautiful early spring day before the cherry blossoms started to bloom.

"There's a seismic shift of public awareness," Blumenthal said in his usual carefully crafted sentences. "We are in the midst of a major movement similar to the civil rights movement, marriage equality and women's rights."

But Blumenthal acknowledged the movement may not have an immediate effect with Republicans controlling the White House and Congress.

"Realistically, we may need to wait for the 2018 elections," he said, referring to the possibility that Democrats will prevail in an off-year election that many expect will wipe out GOP dominance — more likely in the House but potentially in the Senate as well.

Blumenthal, who spent the March for Our Lives day in Enfield, Hartford and Old Saybrook, said he was encouraged that Florida, where the shootings at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland led to 17 deaths, had already passed legislation restricting gun purchases. He wants to see an assault weapon ban nationally, similar to one that existed in the 1990s and that Connecticut currently imposes.

"We have to make it an issue," Blumenthal, 71, said. "We need to be single-minded and determined."

Blumenthal, whose waiting room this day was full of news about new steel and aluminum tariffs being imposed by the Trump administration and plummeting stock prices, said he believes in fair trade and was concerned that higher metal prices would hurt defense contractors.

"We need to make sure our manufacturers are being treated fairly," he said.

Another hot issue of the day — and of this week, when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to appear before a congressional committee to address concerns over the Cambridge Analytica data debacle that exposed millions of people to unwanted exposure of personal information — was whether to more tightly regulate social media sites.

Blumenthal called the Facebook revelation "an egregious breach of trust," and said so far there have been "more questions than answers." He said these companies should "no longer be above the law" and should be subject to rules and oversight, just like other major companies.

Blumenthal is equally worried about President Trump acting above the law and possibly firing special counsel Robert Mueller. That's why he and several other Democratic legislators on the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote a letter last month urging colleagues to protect the investigation and make sure it goes forward without interference.

He said the idea has largely fallen on deaf ears among Republicans, who have indicated they will support legislation only "if it is needed." Blumenthal noted reports that Trump already tried to fire Mueller once, thwarted only by opposition from the president's White House counsel, and said he feared Trump "will become even more desperate" if the investigation starts closing in on his business ties to Russia.

Blumenthal closed the half-hour interview by addressing the issue of DACA, the Obama-era program that allowed the sons and daughters of illegal aliens who had spent most of their life in the United States to remain here indefinitely — until Trump rescinded the policy. The senator remains hopeful a deal can be worked out soon, even if Democrats have to cede some money for Trump's border wall.

"They are supported by the majority of the American people," Blumenthal said. "No one in their right mind wants 800,000 Dreamers to be victims of mass deportation."

Lee Howard is The Day's community editor.