Democrats in the Senate took the first parliamentary steps on Monday to start debate on gun legislation, even as a group of Republicans threatened to filibuster the measure, as President Obama again said it's time for votes on a variety of gun plans.
"Now, I know that some of these proposals inspire more debate than others, but each of them has the support of the majority of the American people," the President told a crowd at the University of Hartford in Connecticut.
"All of them are common sense. All of them deserve a vote," Mr. Obama added.
A few hours earlier, the same theme had been picked up by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, as he blasted Republicans for threatening a filibuster that might prevent a gun bill from even being officially debated on the Senate floor.
"Everyone of these measures deserves a vote; Yes or no. No hiding," said Reid.
After the Senate had reconvened following a two week Easter break, Reid started the process to bring a Democratic gun bill to the floor, entering what's known as the "Motion to Proceed."
That motion can be filibustered, which technically means that if Republicans wanted to block the gun bill, they could prevent the measure from even getting before the full Senate.
Behind the scenes, Democrats were still deciding how to tinker with the legislation, and pushing for a bipartisan deal on background checks on almost all gun sales.
"But the problem is loopholes in the current law let so many people avoid background checks altogether," the President argued in his speech. "That’s not safe. It doesn’t make sense."
As the President flew home from Connecticut on Monday, he brought back a number of families of those who lost either a child or teacher in the Newtown school shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.
"These are family members who are planning to be in Washington to speak with Congress about the importance of taking action to reduce gun violence," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
So, with another event on Tuesday by Vice President Biden on guns, the stage is set for a debate in the Senate.
But as with many things in the Senate, we can't even answer the most basic of questions at this point - will the Senate actually get to a point of debating a bill and voting on amendments?
Some of the talk in the halls of the Capitol on Monday indicated that maybe the Senate would use this week just to talk, while efforts continued to reach a deal on background checks and any other provisions.
The Motion to Proceed to S. 649 remains the pending business.
