A week after Orlando shooting, four gun control bills fail in U.S. Senate

One week after the deadly Orlando shooting that killed 49 people and injured dozens of others, partisan gridlock in the U.S. Senate led to the failure of four separate gun bills in one day -- leading to plenty of frustration and anger on social media. 

The four competing plans were:

• A proposal by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that would block most gun sales to members of the country's terror watch list.
  

• A counter-proposal to Feinstein's bill by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) that would block the sale of guns to a member of the terror watch list only if prosecutors could convince a judge within three days that the would-be buyer was involved in terrorism. Cornyn's bill was backed by the National Rifle Association (NRA).
  

• A proposal by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who led last week's Democratic filibuster, that would have widely expanded the requirement for background checks, even to many private gun transactions, leaving few loopholes. 
  

• A proposal by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), that would increase money for the background check system, prod states to send more records on banned gun buyers to the FBI, and revamp language prohibiting some people with mental health issues from buying a gun. Democrats claimed that language would roll back current protections.
  

Monday's votes were 53-47 for Grassley's plan, 44-56 for Murphy's, 53-47 for Cornyn's and 47-53 for Feinstein's — all short of the 60 needed. The votes were mostly along party lines.

Senate leaders continued verbal sparring, each side pointing the finger at the other. "Republicans say, 'Hey look, we tried,'" said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev). "And all the time, their cheerleaders, the bosses at the NRA, are cheering them."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the Orlando shootings — in which the FBI says the American-born gunman swore allegiance to a leader of the Islamic State — show the best way to prevent attacks by extremists is to defeat them overseas.

"Look, no one wants terrorists to be able to buy guns or explosives," McConnell said. He suggested that Democrats were using the day's votes "as an opportunity to push a partisan agenda or craft the next 30-second campaign ad," while Republicans wanted "real solutions."

Online, response to the news was overwhelmingly anger at the gridlock, with many people using the #DisarmHate hashtag on Twitter. Individual senators, meanwhile, took to social media to defend their votes.

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Additional reporting by the Associated Press.

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