Atty. Gen. Eric Holder says his 'single failure' was not enacting stricter gun laws

Atty. Gen. Eric Holder said in an interview Sunday that not enacting new gun safety laws following the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012 was "the single failure" of his time in office.

Visiting the site of the school shooting was the worst day he had during his more than six years as attorney general, he told MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry. Following the tragedy, the Senate attempted to enact stricter gun laws, including a broader requirement for background checks for gun purchases that was proposed by Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat from West Virginia and Republican Sen. Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Partly due to opposition from the National Rifle Association, the Manchin-Toomey amendment fell five votes short. "The gun lobby simply won, you know?" Holder told Harris-Perry. "I think that members of Congress need to have a little more backbone and stand up to what is a distinct minority even within, for instance, the NRA, and do the kinds of reasonable things that the American people simply want to have happen."

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