'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Sen. Joe Manchin III, West Virginia Democrat, says the ongoing scandal surrounding the IRS certainly doesn't help his chances of winning expanded gun-purchase background checks.
Be careful what you wish for, the saying goes, because you might get it. Until recently, gun-fearing Senate Democrats were positively giddy about getting access to the deep pockets of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his Mayors Against Illegal Guns Action Fund.
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a 2012 Republican presidential candidate, is helping launch a new monthly radio talk show on SiriusXM satellite radio aimed at promoting bipartisan politics.
Sen. Pat Toomey, one of the main architects of the failed Senate legislation to expand gun background checks, blamed misinformation for helping sink the bill.
Expanded background-checks legislation may have been stopped in its tracks, but gun control advocates — led by the families of the Newtown, Conn., victims — are vowing to fight on.
One of the main architects of a gun-control bill that failed in the Senate this week said Friday he will continuing selling his plan on and off Capitol Hill and remains optimistic it one day will become law.
Senate Democrats shelved their gun control bill Thursday, saying that despite passionate pleas from families whose children died in December's Connecticut rampage, they cannot muster enough votes to pass any of the major new restrictions they had hoped for.
Sen. Joe Manchin III, West Virginia Democrat and one of the co-sponsors of a measure to expand gun-purchase background checks to sales online and at gun shows, said that proponents do not have the votes to pass it Wednesday.
Senators dealt a devastating blow to gun control efforts Wednesday, defeating the background check compromise that was the centerpiece of President Obama's post-Newtown push for stiffer laws and leaving advocates struggling to figure out what to do now.
As the prospects for gun-control legislation grow dimmer, President Obama said Congress should put aside politics and approve gun restrictions to protect children.
With chances iffy for winning a broad expansion of background checks in the Senate this week, gun control advocates face a tough choice: Hold out for a wide-ranging bill and risk killing it altogether, or find the stomach for a watered-down approach that ensures at least something passes.
The deal senators have struck to expand firearm background checks to all Internet and gun show sales will drive up prices for consumers, weapons retailers say.
Lawmakers on both sides of a proposal to expand gun-purchase background checks to sales online and at gun shows said Sunday that they don't know whether it will pass — a hurdle that, if not cleared, likely would kill the prospects of significant gun control legislation on Capitol Hill.
After South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson's embrace of gay marriage last week, activists who have made the issue a litmus test for Democratic Party officeholders are cranking up the heat on the three remaining holdouts among Democrats in the Senate.
"Sure, it doesn't help us - heck no," Mr. Manchin replied. "But the bottom line is, Hop, you cant stop government; you can't stop this great country, you can't stop the entrepreneurial spirit."
Collateral Damage: 'Heck no' the IRS mess 'doesn't help us' on gun control, Manchin says →
But the ongoing scandal surrounding the IRS certainly doesn't help, he said on a West Virginia radio program Friday.
Collateral Damage: 'Heck no' the IRS mess 'doesn't help us' on gun control, Manchin says →
