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From NPR News, it's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Madeleine Brand in California.

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

And I'm Robert Siegel in Washington.

Senate Democrats have scored many legislative victories this year but not so much when it came to votes on guns. Well, that losing streak ended today. The Senate narrowly defeated a requirement that almost all states honor concealed weapons permits issued by other states.

NPR's David Welna has the story.

DAVID WELNA: When it comes to guns, Senate Democrats are divided. Many do favor tighter gun laws but those from rural and mountain states tend to favor measures expanding gun owners' rights. Republicans have successfully exploited that division several times this year. And today, South Dakota Republican John Thune tried doing so again.

He offered an amendment to a Defense budget bill that says anyone who has a permit in one state would be able to carry a loaded concealed weapon into the 47 other states that also issue permits.

Senator JOHN THUNE (Republican, South Dakota): This carefully tailored amendment will insure that a state's border is not a limit to an individual's fundamental right, and will allow law-abiding individuals to travel without complication throughout the 48 states that currently permit some form of conceal and carry.

WELNA: Thune touted his measure as being endorsed by the National Rifle Association, the Gun Owners of America and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. That provided an opening for the Senate's number two Democrat, Dick Durbin.

Senator DICK DURBIN (Democrat, Illinois): Did you listen to the group that has endorsed the Thune amendment? You know what's missing? Not a single law enforcement group supports John Thune's amendment. The men and women who are risking their lives for our safety every day do not support his amendment.

WELNA: Durbin's home state of Illinois and Wisconsin are the only two states that don't allow concealed carry of loaded weapons. But Durbin noted that the 48 states that do, have vastly differing standards for issuing Concealed Carry permits.

Sen. DURBIN: Under the Thune amendment, people from those states with virtually no standards for concealed carry or no requirement to prove that you know how to use gun, those people could visit states where they've established standards for the safety of their residents, and under the Thune amendment, legally carry a gun. In other words, the visitors can ignore the law of the state, a law that the elected representatives of the people in that state have enacted.

WELNA: It was a day when Democrats, who frequently back federal laws over state laws, could be heard sounding the call of states' rights, including California's Dianne Feinstein.

Senator DIANNE FEINSTEIN (Democrat, California): Here we have people who believe in states' rights, that when it comes to something they really want, are willing to pounce on states' rights and destroy them.

WELNA: Wyoming Republican John Barrasso defended the gun measure as a matter of carrying one's rights from one state to another.

Senator JOHN BARRASSO (Republican, Wyoming): Just like a driver's license - and this is my Wyoming driver's license - just like a driver's license, the Thune amendment is a license for self-defense across state lines. It means with this license, my Concealed Carry License from Wyoming, I will not be limited to Wyoming.

WELNA: That argument failed to persuade New York Democrat Charles Schumer.

Senator CHARLES SCHUMER (Democrat, New York): I understand the power of the gun lobby. I understand that we have different beliefs and represent different states. But we are not trying to say what South Dakota should do. Why should South Dakota say what New York or California should do?

WELNA: Sixty votes were needed to pass the amendment but it got only 58. Twenty of those votes came from Democrats, including Majority Leader Harry Reid who faces a tough re-election bid next year in Nevada.

Today's vote showcased a Senate majority that's grown so big that even with a third of its members crossing the aisle, the others, with the help of two Republicans, blocked a big change in gun laws.

David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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