BREAKING RANKS

Gun-Rights Group Endorses Checks

Bill’s fate far from assured.

No, it’s not the National Rifle Association, but the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms endorsed the background check plan drafted by Sens. Joe Manchin and Patrick Toomey. There are other signs the bill might not be doomed: Sen. Susan Collins endorsed it, and John McCain made it sound like he might soon. The Manchin-Toomey draft has a prohibition on a national gun registry and doesn’t require checks for private gun transactions. Still, the bill’s fate is far from assured: a bipartisan coalition of 68 senators voted to overcome a filibuster last week and debate gun laws, but already 7 of the 16 Republicans who did so have already said they won’t vote for the actual bill, and another 6 are ambivalent.