Divided U.S. Senate votes down changes to gun control laws

The White House accused U.S.senators of sacrificing national security for their politicalambitions on Tuesday, a day after four gun control measuresfailed to advance after the nation's largest mass shooting inOrlando, Fla.,last week.

"What we saw last night on the floor of the United StatesSenate was a shameful display of cowardice," White House
spokesman Josh Earnest said on MSNBC.

Earnest said the bills put forth for votes on Monday eveningshould have drawn strong bipartisan support aimed atshoring upthe country's defences by keeping firearms away from people onterrorism watch lists.

He said U.S. law enforcement officials are concerned thatthere are individuals in the United States who could have tiesto terrorism or are susceptible to online recruitment efforts ofthe militant group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

"And right now. there is not a law on the books that preventsthose individuals from walking into a gun store and buying agun," Earnest said.

The Senate votes against the measures restricting gun salescame after 49 people were killed on June 12 in an Orlando gaynightclub. The votes were a bitter setback to advocates who havefailed to get even modest gun curbs through Congress despiterepeated mass shootings.

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The Orlando gunman, Omar Mateen, pledged allegiance toISISduring his rampage. Mateen had beenadded totheTerrorist Screening Database while he was being investigated by the FBI on two occasions in 2013 and 2014. He was eventually cleared and removed from the watch list.

The gun control measures lost in largely party-line votesthat showed the political power in Congress of gun rightsdefenders and the National Rifle Association (NRA).

"Republicans have run around and spent the last week saying'radical Islamic extremism' to anybody who will listen," Earnestsaid. "But when it actually comes to preventing those extremistsfrom being able to walk into a gun store and buy a gun, they'reAWOL. They won't do anything about it because they're scared ofthe NRA.That's shameful."

A group of senators hoped to forge a compromise for later inthe week aimed at keeping firearms away from people on terrorismwatch lists, although that effort faced an uphill battle withcritics in both parties skeptical about its chances.