Gun Rights Group Backs Toomey- Manchin Bill

The NRA has slammed Sens. Pat Toomey and Joe Manchin's new background-check proposal, but another gun-rights organization is supporting it. Calling itself the country's second-biggest gun-rights advocacy group, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms says the proposal includes "advances for our cause," the Daily Intelligencer reports. Among those advances: "interstate sales of handguns, veteran gun rights restoration, travel with firearms protection ... and most important," jail time for anyone attempting to establish a gun registry based on sales data.

"These advances for gun rights" depend on substituting the Toomey-Manchin proposal "for the current draconian background-check bill that is pending before the Senate," says a group leader, per Politico. But the gun group's support may not be enough to surpass intra-party conflicts. Some Democrats up for reelection next year have already vowed not to support the proposal, while moderate and conservative Republicans are divided on the issue, the New York Times notes. With immigration reform and gun control both on the table, some Republicans may end up picking one or the other. "We’ve got some work to do," says Manchin.