Senate votes down 2 gun control amendments day after San Bernardino shooting

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

last updated 4 December 2015

On Thursday, the Senate rejected two gun control measures brought forward one day after the mass shooting in San Bernardino that killed 14 people.

A proposal from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to expand background checks for guns bought at gun shows and online was voted down, 48-50, and an amendment from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to prevent people listed on the terror watch list from buying firearms was rejected, 45-54. Both needed 60 votes to be adopted, and they were offered to an ObamaCare repeal package being debated in the Senate, The Washington Post reports.

Manchin said his amendment had bipartisan support and was "for law-abiding gun owners. It's a good piece of legislation and it's most reasonable and it's been accepted by people around the gun community. " Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a Democratic presidential candidate, said it's time to make several changes. "We need to significantly expand and improve background checks," he said. "We need to renew the assault weapons ban. We need to end the sale of high capacity magazines. We need to make gun trafficking a federal crime and give law enforcement the tools they need to get illegal guns off of the streets. We need to close the gun show loophole as well as loopholes that allow gun purchasers to buy a gun after the waiting period expires without a completed background check."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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