| Dimocrat Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, left, and Repuglican Sen. Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania, right, announce that they have reached a bipartisan deal on expanding background checks to more gun buyers, at the Capitol in Washington. A bipartisan gun control deal by Toomey and Manchin inspired Senate conservatives to drop their filibuster plans, even though many Repuglicans who allowed the legislation to advance said they were unlikely to vote for its passage in the end. The Senate has rejected a bipartisan effort to expand federal background checks to more firearms buyers in a crucial showdown over gun control. The vote was a jarring blow to the drive to curb firearms sparked by December’s massacre of children and staff at an elementary school in Newtown, CT. |
