Senate showdown set on gun control

WASHINGTON — After four months of debate and maneuvering, the Senate headed for a showdown over gun control — a series of back-to-back votes on rival plans Wednesday afternoon that could end in the collapse of the entire effort.

The impending climax, after weeks of inconclusive negotiations, came as gun control supporters tried, without apparent success, to get enough senators to commit themselves to a compromise reached last week by Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.). Their proposal, which would expand the background check requirement for gun buyers, appears to have support of a majority of the Senate, but so far has fallen short of the 60 votes needed to block a filibuster.

Under the procedure announced late Tuesday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the background check measure would be put to a vote, followed by eight other proposals, all cast as amendments to the gun control package that the Senate has been considering. The amendments to be voted on include several backed by the National Rifle Assn. to expand the rights of gun owners, as well as the assault weapons ban proposed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

Reid decided to put the amendments to a vote because “it’s clear that there’s not much point in negotiating any further,” a Senate Democratic leadership aide said. “We’ll see where the votes are.”

Although the background check measure has fallen short in tallies by both sides, the multiple amendments could provide an opportunity for changing crucial votes, the aide said. Democratic senators from conservative states or Republicans who have been on the fence about gun control could vote for some of the NRA-backed amendments in hopes of obtaining political cover for a vote in favor of background checks, the aide said. They would do so knowing that none of those measures were likely to hit the 60-vote threshold.

In addition, Democratic vote counters think the high-stakes showdown could generate additional public pressure in favor of the gun measures.

But despite those possibilities, the move clearly represented a high-risk strategy on Reid’s part. Earlier in the day, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has led the gun control effort in the Senate, said that “a little more time” would be helpful.

So far, only two other Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Mark Steven Kirk of Illinois — have joined Toomey in supporting the background check measure. A few others, including Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have said they remain undecided. Several Democrats who face reelection in conservative states, including Mark Begich of Alaska and Max Baucus of Montana, also have not taken sides.

Most gun rights groups, including the NRA, oppose the measure, although two smaller pro-gun organizations recently endorsed the plan. Currently, a person who buys a gun from a licensed dealer must go through a background check, but sales outside of the dealer network — at gun shows, for example, or through the Internet — are exempt. The proposal would end those exemptions, although it would allow some private unadvertised sales without checks.

Sellers would be required to use a licensed dealer to conduct the background check, and the dealership would keep a record of the sale, as is currently done. That would allow law enforcement agencies to trace ownership of guns used in crimes. Gun rights groups object that those records could eventually be used to create a national gun registry, which is currently banned by law.

Supporters of the proposal probably would need the backing of all the remaining undecided senators to reach 60 votes. They would also need the vote of New Jersey’s Frank R. Lautenberg, the 89-year-old Democrat who has been absent from the Senate recently because of illness.

In an effort to hold their ranks together, Senate Democrats gathered Tuesday for a lunchtime meeting that included what Reid called a “moving, tearful presentation” by Manchin.

Adding to the emotion was a brief appearance by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona Democrat who was severely wounded in a mass shooting in Tucson two years ago. Giffords’ husband, retired naval Capt. Mark Kelly, spoke at the lunch, as did senators from Virginia and Connecticut, states that have been the scenes of mass shootings in recent years.

“There were just so many moments there of just genuine inspiration — from Gabby Giffords and her husband coming in, to statements that were made by Joe Manchin, by [Sens.] Tim Kaine, Richard Blumenthal, Chris Murphy. I turned to my colleague Bill Nelson [of Florida] and said, ‘Now you know why you ran to be in the Senate — to be here at this moment in history.’ That was an inspiring lunch,” Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said.

But it is unclear whether the testimonials swayed on-the-fence Democrats. And more “no” votes from the GOP trickled into public view as Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, who had been counted among the undecided, announced late Tuesday that he would oppose the amendment. In the last several days, 10 of the 16 Republicans who voted to allow debate on the gun bill have declared they would not back the Manchin-Toomey background check plan.

Asked about the vote count as he left a ceremony to name a room in the Congressional Visitor Center in honor of slain Giffords staffer Gabriel Zimmerman, Vice President Joe Biden said, “We are working to get to 60, and it’s fluid. And I think we’re there, but it’s not unusual, as you all know, for people to make up their mind at the last minute. So we’ll see.”

White House aides said President Obama had been calling senators on the issue, but would not say which ones he had contacted.

Toomey and Manchin had been trying to woo a few undecided senators by offering to look at further changes in their proposal. One idea has been to exempt purchasers in rural areas far from licensed gun dealers from having to undergo background checks. That change would be designed to woo senators from largely rural states such as Alaska. Manchin huddled for nearly half an hour on the Senate floor Monday night with Alaska’s two senators.

“We’re looking at everything that could help,” Manchin said Tuesday, after a brief meeting with Toomey, Giffords and Kelly.

Kelly, who along with Giffords founded the gun safety group Americans for Responsible Solutions, said after the Zimmerman dedication ceremony that background checks faced a tough path in the Senate because “there are a lot of U.S. senators who are just looking for a reason to get to no.”

Earlier in the day, speaking to reporters at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, Kelly appeared stung by Sen. Jeff Flake’s online announcement Monday evening that he intended to vote against the Manchin-Toomey plan. Flake, an Arizona Republican and a friend of Giffords, was intensely lobbied by gun control groups to support the measure, but wrote on Facebook that the plan would require background checks even for minor sales like those posted on office bulletin boards, and therefore went “too far.”

“It appears to me that maybe he hasn’t actually read the bill. Because his concerns are clearly addressed in the legislation,” Kelly said. “So what’s going on here? With Sen. Flake and probably another 10 or more senators that we hope to get to yes, they’re looking for a reason to say no because of the influence of the gun lobby.”

In an emailed statement, Flake said, “I respect Gabby and Mark and their strong viewpoints on this issue.”

Kelly said that if Flake did not vote for expanded background checks, his group would back a challenger against the senator in his 2018 reelection bid.

“Friendship is one thing,” Kelly said. “Saving people’s lives, especially first-graders’, is another.”

michael.memoli@latimes.com

melanie.mason@latimes.com

Staff writers Kathleen Hennessey and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.