| USA TODAY | - |
WASHINGTON
- An angry President Obama criticized a minority of the Senate on
Wednesday for helping defeat a proposal to expand background checks on
gun purchases.
Obama on Senate gun vote: 'A shameful day'
WASHINGTON
— An angry President Obama criticized a minority of the Senate on
Wednesday for helping defeat a proposal to expand background checks on
gun purchases.
"It all came down to politics," Obama said in the Rose Garden. "All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington."
Obama was flanked by the family of Daniel Barden, who was among the 20 children and six adults killed Dec. 14 in a gun massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Also with Obama: Former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head during a 2011 assassination attempt.
MORE: How senators voted
Just hours before, the Senate voted 54-46 to defeat an amendment by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to expand background checks to include purchases made at gun shows and on the Internet. The background checks measure was seen as the core of legislative efforts to reduce gun massacres, such as the one in Newtown and the 2011 rampage in Tucson that killed six people and severely wounded Giffords, a moderate Democrat and gun owner who now champions gun control efforts.
Sixty votes were necessary to get around a filibuster – a tall order because it meant drawing on Republican support to make up for losing majority-party Democrats. Obama slammed the Senate filibuster rules, and said the concern that gun owners would vote against senators in the next election sparked the vote.
The president cited public opinion polls that show 90% of Americans support tougher background checks, but cited an equal percentage of Republicans who rejected the idea.
Three Democratic senators from red states who are up for re-election in 2014 -- Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska -- voted against the background checks proposal. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota also voted "no," as did Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Four GOP senators -- Toomey, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Susan Collins of Maine and John McCain of Arizona -- crossed party lines to support the measure.
Reid's vote was procedural. It will allow him to bring up the background checks measure again if supporters believe they can get enough votes. In a sign of the politics on guns, the liberal Progressive Change Campaign Committee launched an ad campaign targeting Pryor, Baucus, Montana and Begich for their "no" votes.
FIRST TAKE: Obama may regret not leaning in on guns
In a surprise, ailing Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., appeared in the chamber for the first time in weeks to cast an "aye" vote. He has been battling muscle weakness and fatigue, and came to the Senate floor in a wheelchair.
After the vote, the National Rifle Association called the background checks proposal "misguided."
"This amendment would have criminalized certain private transfers of firearms between honest citizens, requiring lifelong friends, neighbors and some family members to get federal government permission to exercise a fundamental right or face prosecution," said Chris W. Cox, the NRA's chief lobbyist. "As we have noted previously, expanding background checks, at gun shows or elsewhere, will not reduce violent crime or keep our kids safe in their schools."
In a sign of the importance of the gun debate, Vice President Biden presided over the chamber during the vote on background checks. In an online chat with mayors, he seemed to acknowledge it would be a long shot but vowed to keep pressing for gun control measures.
"I can assure you one thing: We're going to get this eventually," Biden said. "If we don't get it today, we'll get it eventually. I think the American people are way ahead of their elected officials."
The Senate rejected several other amendments to the underlying gun bill, including one to ban assault weapons and limit the size of magazine clips. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the sponsor of the assault weapons ban, implored her colleagues to "show some guts" but the measure was defeated on a 40-60 vote.
A substitute plan by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, that would tighten the background check database but not expand the types of sales subject to it was defeated. A measure by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, to toughen rules on gun trafficking was also rejected.
During Wednesday's debate, Manchin held up his NRA membership card in the Senate chamber and called out the gun lobby for "lies" about what his measure would do. Specifically, he said, the gun lobby had inaccurately claimed the amendment would criminalize the transfer of guns to friends and family members.
"Where I come from, West Virginia, I don't know how to put the words any plainer than this: That is a lie. That is simply a lie," he said. "It's not a universal background check."
end quote from:
"It all came down to politics," Obama said in the Rose Garden. "All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington."
Obama was flanked by the family of Daniel Barden, who was among the 20 children and six adults killed Dec. 14 in a gun massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Also with Obama: Former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head during a 2011 assassination attempt.
MORE: How senators voted
Just hours before, the Senate voted 54-46 to defeat an amendment by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to expand background checks to include purchases made at gun shows and on the Internet. The background checks measure was seen as the core of legislative efforts to reduce gun massacres, such as the one in Newtown and the 2011 rampage in Tucson that killed six people and severely wounded Giffords, a moderate Democrat and gun owner who now champions gun control efforts.
Sixty votes were necessary to get around a filibuster – a tall order because it meant drawing on Republican support to make up for losing majority-party Democrats. Obama slammed the Senate filibuster rules, and said the concern that gun owners would vote against senators in the next election sparked the vote.
The president cited public opinion polls that show 90% of Americans support tougher background checks, but cited an equal percentage of Republicans who rejected the idea.
Three Democratic senators from red states who are up for re-election in 2014 -- Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska -- voted against the background checks proposal. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota also voted "no," as did Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Four GOP senators -- Toomey, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Susan Collins of Maine and John McCain of Arizona -- crossed party lines to support the measure.
Reid's vote was procedural. It will allow him to bring up the background checks measure again if supporters believe they can get enough votes. In a sign of the politics on guns, the liberal Progressive Change Campaign Committee launched an ad campaign targeting Pryor, Baucus, Montana and Begich for their "no" votes.
FIRST TAKE: Obama may regret not leaning in on guns
In a surprise, ailing Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., appeared in the chamber for the first time in weeks to cast an "aye" vote. He has been battling muscle weakness and fatigue, and came to the Senate floor in a wheelchair.
After the vote, the National Rifle Association called the background checks proposal "misguided."
"This amendment would have criminalized certain private transfers of firearms between honest citizens, requiring lifelong friends, neighbors and some family members to get federal government permission to exercise a fundamental right or face prosecution," said Chris W. Cox, the NRA's chief lobbyist. "As we have noted previously, expanding background checks, at gun shows or elsewhere, will not reduce violent crime or keep our kids safe in their schools."
In a sign of the importance of the gun debate, Vice President Biden presided over the chamber during the vote on background checks. In an online chat with mayors, he seemed to acknowledge it would be a long shot but vowed to keep pressing for gun control measures.
"I can assure you one thing: We're going to get this eventually," Biden said. "If we don't get it today, we'll get it eventually. I think the American people are way ahead of their elected officials."
The Senate rejected several other amendments to the underlying gun bill, including one to ban assault weapons and limit the size of magazine clips. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the sponsor of the assault weapons ban, implored her colleagues to "show some guts" but the measure was defeated on a 40-60 vote.
A substitute plan by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, that would tighten the background check database but not expand the types of sales subject to it was defeated. A measure by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, to toughen rules on gun trafficking was also rejected.
During Wednesday's debate, Manchin held up his NRA membership card in the Senate chamber and called out the gun lobby for "lies" about what his measure would do. Specifically, he said, the gun lobby had inaccurately claimed the amendment would criminalize the transfer of guns to friends and family members.
"Where I come from, West Virginia, I don't know how to put the words any plainer than this: That is a lie. That is simply a lie," he said. "It's not a universal background check."
end quote from:
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