WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans backed by a small band of rural-state Democrats scuttled the most far-reaching gun control legislation in two decades Wednesday, rejecting tighter background checks for buyers and a ban on assault weapons as they spurned pleas from families of victims of last winter's school massacre in Newtown, Conn. "This effort isn't over," President Barack Obama vowed at the White House moments after the defeat on one of his top domestic... (GunPolicy.org)