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Story taken from

The Daily Caller

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama was hoping the emotions from the Newtown elementary school massacre would lead to new gun control measures.

But the president’s hopes for new laws placing new restrictions on gun owners may have ended Wednesday, as the Democratic-controlled Senate voted against a watered down gun-control proposal seen as having the best chance of passing.

The Manchin/Toomey amendment expanding mandatory background checks — billed as a compromise proposal that both parties could back — failed to get the 60 required votes in the body. Fifty-four senators voted for the legislation, while 46 voted against it. The bill is named for Republican Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey and Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who collaborated to craft it.

“This isn’t gun control,” Toomey argued on the floor before the vote. “It’s common-sense.”

But gun rights activists scoffed at the proposal — which would have extended background checks to gun shows and online sales – saying it would do nothing to stop another mass shooting.

“Expanded background checks would not have prevented Newtown,” Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said before the vote.

The Senate was also poised to vote on eight other amendments having to do with guns on Wednesday afternoon, including a conservative alternative offered by Grassley and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and a federal “assault weapons” ban sponsored by Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

“Shame on you,” a woman in the gallery shouted when the vote tally was announced.