The background check amendment was no panacea and it would not have prevented "the next massacre".
Should the background check amendment fail, a broader package of new gun legislation would continue to the Senate floor, but wounded.
Supporters of the background check amendment believe the exemptions for people who live far from gun dealers might appeal to them.
Senate Democrats, trying to simply hold their ranks together behind a background check amendment written by Senators Manchin and Toomey met for an emotional luncheon on Tuesday.
Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, said Wednesday he was still scrambling for votes on the background check amendment that he created with Senator Pat Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania.
Together with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who voted "no" to preserve parliamentary maneuverability, the four dissenting Democrats would have brought the total number of votes in support of the background check amendment to 59.
Of all the senators who attempted Wednesday to rally support for the doomed Manchin-Toomey background check amendment, Connecticut's Democratic freshman representative, Chris Murphy, probably faced the greatest temptation to borrow the moral authority of the Newtown families.
This suggests that Heitkamp, Begich, Pryor and Baucus are likely to have overestimated the conservatism of their constituents in making judgments on the political cost of voting for the background check amendment.
If anything, thinking of the NRA – and the political power of gun rights activists as a whole – as the sole architect of the failure of the background check amendment gives us exactly the kind of convenient, one-dimensional "good guy v bad guy" framework that the NRA wants to superimpose on every decision about gun legislation.
Ayotte's approval rating also dropped significantly after her vote against the background check amendment, according to polls.
