HuffPo: Coburn: Gun Background Checks Bill ‘Unworkable’
Tom Coburn: Gun Background Checks Bill ‘Unworkable’
By Michael McAuliff and Jennifer Bendery
WASHINGTON -– The infamously independent Republican Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.) threw the first serious cold water on the bipartisan gun bill compromise brokered by two colleagues, calling their expanded background checks plan “unworkable.”
Coburn had been courted by Democrats earlier in hopes of producing a bipartisan bill, but that fell apart. Instead, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) rolled out an offering Wednesday that extends background checks to gun shows and Internet sales, but exempts private person-to-person sales.
Many senators were non-committal on the proposal, including pro-gun Democrat Max Baucus, of Montana, who said he would not comment on it until he sees the legislative language.
But Coburn released a strong statement Wednesday afternoon, calling his colleagues’ proposal “a good faith but unworkable plan.”