South Bay Leaders Respond to Senate's Vote Against Gun Reform

After the U.S. Senate voted against an amended gun safety bill requiring stricter background checks Wednesday, members of the Bay Area community are continuing efforts to strengthen gun control nationwide.

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, who heads the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, issued a statement lamenting Wednesday's vote against expanded background checks for gun purchases.

"Voting 'no' on this amendment is a vote to allow criminals and the dangerously mentally ill easy access to guns and a vote against lawful gun owners and the Second Amendment," Thompson said in the statement.

Thompson is pushing for the legislation to make it to a House vote, which today seems unlikely, where bi-partisan legislation to expand background checks was introduced this week and is identical to the Senate's struck down so-called Manchin-Toomey expanded background checks amendment.

The bipartisan amendment to a package of gun legislation that failed 54-46 in the Senate aimed to have more widespread background checks to prevent easy access to guns.

The amendment was one of seven pieces of gun safety legislation that included proposed assault weapons bans and limits on high-capacity magazines that did not garner the necessary 60 votes from the Senate to amend the package.

The legislation has received support from President Barack Obama after 26 students and educators were killed in the Newtown, Conn., shooting in December.

Following Wednesday's votes, Obama spoke harshly about what he considers the missed legislative opportunity to prevent gun violence. "This was a pretty shameful day for Washington," Obama said at a media briefing in Washington, D.C. Obama said the bi-partisan proposal had support from gun owners, proponents of the Second Amendment, moderates, liberals and conservatives, however he claims the National Rifle Association spread the idea to the gun lobby that "it would create some sort of 'big brother' gun registry."

"While this compromise didn't contain everything I wanted or everything that these families wanted, it did represent progress," Obama said. "It represented moderation and common sense."

In the Bay Area, the Democratic Party's Organizing for Action North Peninsula-San Francisco group held a phone banking session Saturday afternoon in Daly City to gather support for Congress to pass universal background checks and other gun safety measures.

Rep. Anna Eshoo also held a town hall meeting at Palo Alto City Hall Saturday afternoon. She was accompanied by Thompson. The congresswoman's office emphasized her unwavering support for tightening gun control in the nation in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

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