With Vice President Joe Biden presiding over the Senate, an amendment to expand background checks on gun purchases failed to pass through the body, falling by a mostly partisan vote of 54-46.
Sixty votes were needed to pass the legislation through the Senate. Four Democrats voted no on the measure. All but four Republicans voted no.
With prospects already looking bleak, gun-control supporters lost two potential key votes earlier Wednesday, as Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) said they would oppose the measure, which was introduced by Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).
In addition to Heitkamp, the other three Democrats voting against the measure were Sens. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Max Baucus (D-Mont.), and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.).
A bipartisan compromise that would have expanded federal background checks for firearms purchases has been rejected by the Senate.
The defeat of the measure, which failed to get enough votes to avoid a filibuster, marks a major setback for gun-control advocates, many of whom had hoped that Congress would act to curb gun violence in the wake of December's Newtown elementary school massacre, where 20 students and six adults were killed.
The National Rifle Association fought the expansion of background checks, saying criminals would simply ignore them.
The expanded background checks were aimed at closing loopholes and keep criminals and the seriously mentally ill from getting firearms. Currently, the checks only apply to purchases handled by licensed firearms dealers.
In a last-ditch appeal on Wednesday, White House press secretary Jay Carney urged senators to "consider who they're representing," and pointed out that "Ninety percent of the American people support expanded background checks. If you are opposed to this legislation, you should obviously explain why you are against what 90 percent of the people are for."
But a recent Associated Press-GfK poll shows waning public support for tighter gun laws. According to the AP:
Overall "49 percent said gun laws should be made stricter while 38 percent said they should stay the same," according to the survey of 1,004 randomly chosen adults conducted from April 11-15.
Members of Cuba's Ladies in White opposition group will finally pick up Europe's top human rights prize from 2005 in person next week in Belgium, the European Union and the daughter of the group's former leader said Wednesday.
In a statement, the EU said several representatives of the Ladies will be awarded the Sakharov Prize in an April 23 ceremony at the European Parliament in Brussels.
"It will be an honor to go in representation of the Ladies in White and above all my mother, Laura Pollan," said Laura Labrada. Pollan, the group's co-founder and most prominent leader at the time, died in October 2011.
Labrada said she and Belkis Cantillo would leave Sunday and later meet up with Berta Soler, another co-founder of the Ladies, and Blankita Reyes.
The Ladies in White formed in 2003 to demand freedom for their loved ones, 75 government opponents who had been jailed that spring in a crackdown on dissidents.
They became known for their Sunday post-Mass marches down a leafy Havana boulevard, dressed all in white. All 75 prisoners have since been released.
The EU honored the Ladies eight years ago for their activism, but Havana denied them permission to travel to receive the Sakharov.
This January, President Raul Castro's government ended the much-detested exit visa that had been required of all Cuban travelers for decades.
Since then a number of dissidents have traveled overseas including noted blogger Yoani Sanchez, who has been on a tour of at least a dozen nations since February.
However other government opponents with pending legal cases against them have been denied passports.
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