galvanized constituencies that view any effort to tighten gun laws as an infringement.

More like a salvo in the government´s war against the people. Just out of curiosity, have you heard much about the children at Sandy Hook lately from any politician? More like "We´ve´ got to confiscate all of the hi-cap magazines for AR-15´s"...like the one that was actually not used.

Manchin sees no movement? Almost everyone else does see one. Majority rules.

Manchin is an apt pupil in the John McCain School of Playing Both Ends Against the Middle.

When the mascot of West Virginia University carries a musket with him, it is a good indication of how the folks in that state feel about guns. Manchin is a democrat, but he knows his state and wants to be reelected.

Dims like reid, manchin and baucus with their A ratings from the NRA cannot ever be trusted. I hope the NRA learned a lesson.

I was surprised by the uncharacteristically respectful tone this article took towards gun owners, almost as if the NYT were writing about third-trimester-abortion-providers rather than bitter clingers. Perhaps the NYT is echoing Bubba´s warning the other day that gun owners are serious about the 2nd amendment.

The NRA was treated like an accomplice to murder in the days after sandy hook.. now we see stories like this.

The NYT is not stupid.. they tried their best and failed. They now know any push to ban assault rifles will cost the dems seats in congress.

A Baretta 5 shot automatic? Only in the NYT.

" But a number of centrist lawmakers like Mr. Manchin have already thrown the measure’s fate into question, saying that all they are willing to support for now is a stronger background check system. "

They lead with an outrageous ´assault weapons ban´ that they know won´t pass, so they can get a background check system as a ´reasonable compromise´.

When the Persian Army demanded that King Leonidas and his Spartans give up their weapons at the battle of Thermopylae, he responded with two words: MOLON LABE.

MOLON LABE is ancient greek for COME AND TAKE THEM.

Yep, DIMS, touch our guns at your own political peril!

What these politicians should be doing is figuring out ways, as much as possible, to keep any firearm out of the hands of crazy people who are dangerous to themselves and others. There are a lot of crazy people all over America, but only a very small percentage of them are dangerous to themselves and others, and those are the particular type of crazy people who perpetrate the vast majority of the mass shootings, as they seek media attention while carrying out their individual suicide missions.

Politicians should know by now that attempting to take away the historical constitutional rights of hundreds of millions of law abiding citizens because of the criminally insane actions of a very few dangerous crazy people is not a winning political stance.

Anytime politicians do anything there is always a political reason behind their action. In this country crazy people have the right to vote, and you can bet that most of them vote for liberal Democrats who offer them all sorts of government financed benefits and services and refer to them, as Obama recently did, as being victims.

As this debate plays out we will see if the Democrats again want to take the route they took in 1994 by pushing ineffective and over reaching gun control policies that caused them to loose big in the congressional election that year.

After reading several of the responses on the NYT´s article, it became very obvious that many of those who are simply terrified of any weapon and have not take the time to even understand the issue, respond with their typical nievete´. As one of the people in the article said, and it is so true, a person can use a shotgun loaded with 00 buckshot and do more damage quicker than a person with a so called "assault weapon". Each 00 round carries from 8 to 12 projectiles and most pump or semi-auto shotguns can carry 5 to 9 of these rounds. Just going with the minimum capacity of 5 rounds, times only 10 projectiles equals 50 projectiles. Quite a bit more than the 30 round magazines they find so terrible. And one does´t even have to aim a shotgun, simply point in the direction of the mass of people you want to shoot and pull the trigger.These people simply are ignorant of firearms in general. In truth, for them to have the "peace and safety´ they profess to want, firearms, ALL firearms would have to disappear from the face of the earth. But then baseball bats, hammers,fists and feet, which were used in homicides far more times than any rifles in 2011, would simply become the weapons of choice for the "bad guys".