Senate Plans Wednesday Vote on Gun Background Checks

The Senate has set a vote for Wednesday on a bipartisan plan for expanding background checks to more gun buyers, with supporters facing an uphill path to victory.

The agreement ensures a showdown over the cornerstone of an effort by gun control supporters to tighten firearms laws after December's killings of 26 students and aides at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

The Senate planned to vote on eight other amendments as well to a Democratic gun control bill that expands background checks, tightens laws against gun trafficking and boosts school safety aid.

They included Democratic proposals to ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips, a Republican proposal requiring states to honor other states' permits allowing concealed weapons and a broad GOP substitute for the measure.

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