By Susan Duclos
Reports from Washington Post, NBC and MediaIte and others, state that Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) says the Manchin-Toomey background check portion of the Senate gun control bill does not have the votes to pass and will likely fail.
"We will not get the votes today," Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told NBC News.
“As we sit here this morning, we don’t have the votes,” Sen. Patrick
Toomey, R-Pa., a sponsor of the background check compromise, told the
National Review on Wednesday. “Now, there are enough undecided people
that it’s still possible, but I’ll be the first to admit that there is a
very, very narrow path” to victory.
[...]
With the roll call just hours away, yet another Republican — Sen. Kelly
Ayotte of New Hampshire — declared she would vote against the background
check measure. Her announcement, along with opposition from other
Republicans and some moderate Democrats, left supporters heading toward
defeat unless they could turn votes around in the final hours, a near
impossible task. (Washington Post)
Hot Air points out that the GOP didn't just say "no" but have an amendment of their own which would "mental-health reporting in the existing background-check system, as well as authorizing better enforcement of it."
According to a t fact-sheet obtained by the Free Beacon, The Republican plan would "reauthorize and improve the National Instant Criminal
Background Check System, increase resources for prosecutions of gun
crime, address mental illness in the criminal justice system, and
strengthen criminal law by including straw purchasing and illegal
firearm trafficking statutes."
Related:
Read The Senate Gun Control Bill S.649 - Embedded
