Will Mass Shootings Change Manchin’s Mind on Filibuster?
The West Virginia Democrat favors background checks to buy firearms but hasn’t been able to push his bill through the Senate.
The filibuster has blocked Senator Joe Manchin’s gun legislation.
Photographer: Leigh Vogel-Pool/Getty Images
In 2010, when Joe Manchin first ran for the U.S. Senate in West Virginia, his campaign ran an ad showing him loading and shooting a rifle while trumpeting his endorsement by the National Rifle Association. So it took some real courage two years later when, after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that killed 20 children and six adults, Manchin became one of the primary sponsors of a bill requiring universal background checks. (Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania was the other key sponsor.)
Manchin, of course, is a Democrat representing a very red state — just a month before the Sandy Hook massacre, 62% of the electorate voted for Mitt Romney over Barack Obama. The NRA quickly accused him of betraying his constituents and failing to defend the Second Amendment. But Manchin didn’t flinch; instead he hit back at the NRA, saying that it was the gun lobby that was betraying legitimate gun owners like him and other West Virginians who wanted to ensure that firearms didn’t wind up in the hands of people who might commit mass shootings.