confirmed to The Huffington Post that the guffaw had come from Schumer.

Gun control opponents have long claimed that expanded background checks were part of a conspiracy to create a national gun registry and eventually confiscate the firearms of law-abiding citizens. In televised advertisements earlier this year, the National Rifle Association said it had "proof" that President Barack Obama's administration "believes that a gun ban will not work without mandatory gun confiscation."

Senate Republicans and several conservative Democrats on Wednesday blocked the effort to expand background checks.

"Instead of supporting this compromise, the gun lobby and its allies willfully lied about the bill," Obama said in an angry Rose Garden announcement following the Senate vote.