FOXNews.com: Defeat of background check plan tees up protracted battle on gun control

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Defeat of background check plan tees up protracted battle on gun control Apr 18th 2013, 12:18 Supporters of new gun control legislation are vowing to ramp up their campaign for expanded background checks despite suffering a major defeat in the Senate Wednesday, threatening to overpower the gun lobby even if it takes years.  Likewise, critics of the legislation vowed to ensure any future proposals protect both "the lives and liberty" of Americans, teeing up a protracted legislative battle.  A Senate proposal to expand background checks to gun shows and Internet sales, while exempting personal transactions, failed on a 54-46 vote Wednesday. It needed 60 to pass.  Opponents, which included Republicans and rural-state Democrats, said the measure would infringe on Second Amendment rights by imposing a burden on law-abiding gun owners while doing little to stop criminals. They also repeated the concern that the system could lead to a gun registry, though the amendment language prohibited this.  Both sides of the debate indicated a willingness to keep working toward new legislation to address gun violence. But the debate became far more combative in the wake of Wednesday's vote. While Republicans want more of a focus on the mental health system, school security and the entertainment industry, Democrats are focusing even harder on background checks.  Obama, speaking in the Rose Garden late Wednesday, sought to shame those who voted against the background check plan and accused the gun lobby of lying about the bill to scare lawmakers.  "All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington," Obama said. He called the vote "just round one."  Obama's campaign arm, Organizing for Action, swiftly began planning the next round. The group's director Jon Carson announced events this Saturday "in states where senators hold the key to expanding background checks."  It's unclear exactly how Democrats will proceed. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, in a procedural move, switched his vote to oppose the amendment at the last minute, in order to be able to bring up the measure at a later date.  Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who helped craft the bipartisan plan widening background checks, said he would continue talking to other senators to see whether there were changes he could make that would attract their votes.  Senate Democrats could call a do-over vote with a revised piece of legislation.  But they also appeared to acknowledge the deep resistance to any legislation seen to curb gun rights, and threatened to take the campaign into the 2014 congressional elections.  "If this Congress refuses to listen to the American people and pass common-sense gun legislation, then the real impact is going to have to come from the voters," Obama said.  Obama blamed lawmakers' fear that "the gun lobby would spend a lot of money" and accuse them of opposing the Second Amendment's right to bear arms.  But opponents of the restrictions -- which would have been the most meaningful gun curbs approved by Congress in two decades -- said the curbs were defeated because they wouldn't have worked.  Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said most proposals were "predicated on one assumption that somehow we think that the criminal element will single out this one law to comply with."  Added Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., of the expanded background check plan, "This is the first step in the erosion of my rights under the Second Amendment."  The day was not a complete victory for the NRA. Senators defeated one GOP amendment requiring states that let people carry concealed weapons to honor other states' concealed carry permits. Also rejected was a Republican proposal letting some veterans with mental problems have firearms unless a court blocks them from getting the weapons.  No. 2 Senate leader Richard Durbin, D-Ill., was among several Democrats who joined Obama in saying Wednesday's roll calls left them with an issue to take to voters.  "We're now in the world of Gabby Giffords and Mayor Bloomberg and organizations that are organized to come out and support those who vote for gun safety and oppose those who don't," he said, referring to wealthy New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has been financing gun control efforts.  But Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., expressed doubts.  "If it were a real effective political strategy, you wouldn't have seen a lot of Democrats from Southern states voting with Republicans today," he said.  Some Western Democrats voted against restrictions as well.  NRA lobbyist Chris W. Cox thanked lawmakers for defeating the "misguided" background check expansion, saying it would have criminalized gun transactions between friends -- a charge Obama and others called untrue.  Mayors Against Illegal Guns, financed by Michael Bloomberg, called the vote "a damning indictment" of the gun lobby's power.  The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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