Obama lashes out at gun law opponents

PanARMENIAN.Net - President Barack Obama has lashed out at senators who blocked a bipartisan plan to support expanded background checks on firearms, BBC News reported.

"This was a pretty shameful day for Washington," Obama said at the White House. "But this effort is not over."

The plan was blocked on a 54-46 vote, six votes short of the 60-vote hurdle needed to clear the chamber.

Gun rights groups hailed the defeat of the measure, arguing it would violate the right to bear arms.

The proposal, put forward as an amendment to a broader gun bill, sought to widen the current checks to include online and unlicensed gun show dealers.

President Barack Obama is campaigning for tighter gun laws after 26 people died in a school shooting in Connecticut in December.

In remarks at the White House with a family that lost a son in the Newtown massacre by his side, Obama vowed to continue efforts on tighter gun restrictions.

"If this Congress refuses to listen to the American people... then the real impact is going to have to come from the voters," Obama said, calling on those who supported the plan to let their senators know how disappointed they were.

Obama argued those who voted against the Manchin-Toomey plan had been led only by politics. "Most of these senators could not offer any good reason why we wouldn't want to make it harder for criminals and those with severe mental illnesses to buy a gun."

A recent poll by CNN/ORC suggests that 86% of Americans support expanded background checks, but recent AP opinion surveys show support for generally stricter gun laws has dipped from a high of 58% in January to 48%.