Update 1:30 pm: NRA responded as expected to the potential Senate compromise on background checks.
The gun lobby said in a statement that “expanding background checks at gun shows will not prevent the next shooting, will not solve violent crime and will not keep our kids safe in schools.”
The National Rifle Association (NRA) is plowing ahead with its opposition to universal background checks for gun sales, even as news broke Wednesday morning that a bipartisan deal on background checks is emerging in the Senate.
"Americans deserve better," writes Chris Cox, the NRA's top lobbyist in an op-ed in US News & World Report Wednesday (italics mine!).
Members of Congress should reject the idea that expanding a broken background check system will make anyone safer. The American people deserve better than politicians who continue to pursue failed policy agendas. Americans deserve to be safe in their communities and to have their Second Amendment rights respected. We can achieve both.
NBC News reported early Wednesday that Republican Sen. Pat Toomey and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (who received an A-rating from the NRA) had reached a compromise proposal "that could draw Republican support for expanding background checks,"—previously a key sticking point for the GOP.
The senators' proposal has been circulated to the NRA, according to NBC's sources.