Senate blocks expanded gun sale background checks

(Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., voted against background checks legislation. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., voted yes.)

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans, backed by a small band of rural-state Democrats, turned away legislation Wednesday to tighten restrictions on the sale of firearms, rejecting repeated appeals from President Barack Obama and personal pleas by families of the victims of last winter's mass elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Attempts to ban assault-style rifles and high capacity ammunition magazines also faced certain defeat in a series of showdown votes four months after a gunma...