Republicans hurt their own cause by opposing wider background checks for gun purchases, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on the Senate floor Thursday.
“The brand of the Republicans is further damaged by going against 90 percent of Americans. Republicans are on the wrong side,” he said, according to
The Hill.
Reid was referring to polls showing that most Americans support expanded background checks.
The Senate Wednesday voted down a bipartisan amendment to expand background checks 54 to 46, with four Democrats defecting against the bill. A total of 60 votes were needed for passage.
Reid, who in the past has been a strong proponent of gun owners’ rights, sounds ready to carry on the battle. “Yesterday, the families of gun violence victims watched as Republicans defeated a common-sense proposal,” he said. “But make no mistake: this debate is not over. This is not the end of the fight.”
The rejection of the background check amendment – and six others – effectively killed a larger gun control measure that Reid had also wanted to put to a vote.
President Barack Obama is to blame for the gun bill's failure, according to a Wall Street Journal editorial.
“The truth is that Mr. Obama invited this meltdown by assuming he could exploit the Newtown massacre to ram through a liberal wish-list that wouldn't have stopped the next mass murder,” the Journal said in editorial Thursday.
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