By Sam Stein & Jennifer Bendry
It ended in a flash. Months of work aimed at revamping the nations gun laws prompted by one of the worst shooting tragedies in U.S. history met an inglorious conclusion on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday. Every single measure pushed by President Barack Obama — expanded background checks, a strengthened federal gun trafficking statute, limits on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines — failed to receive the necessary 60 votes to prevent a filibuster. By the time all seven amendments including those sponsored by Republicans had been rejected, family members of gun violence victims were left sorrowed, the president was left seething and advocates for the bills were left searching for explanations. “Im going to keep on fighting,” Sen. Joe Manchin D-W.Va., sponsor of the background check bill, told The Huffington Post in an interview shortly after the votes. “The only thing I’ve said is I cannot knowingly put a loophole in a gun show or an Internet sale just for the sake of getting a vote. I cannot do that. But if there is some wording that would prohibit someone from misinterpreting what we are trying to do … I’m more than willing to listen to that and work with them.”The background check bill, Manchin noted, had been his “coming out party” in the Senate — the first high-profile piece of legislation in his 2 1/2 years in the chamber.
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