Gun Control Legislation: Sandy Hook Parents To Meet Senators, Signs With Lobbying Firm

As Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., works with colleague Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to broker a gun ownership background check deal before Tuesday’s 5 p.m. deadline, the parents of Sandy Hook massacre victims are preparing to meet with several senators in order to lobby for the gun control legislation.

According to a report from Politico, the nearly a dozen parents will be meeting both Democratic and Republican senators. Along with Manchin and Toomey, the parents will meet with Mark Pryor, D-Ark., Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., John Cornyn, R-Texas, Mark Begich, D-Alaska, Angus King, I-Maine, and Kay Hagan, D-N.C.

Obama brought the parents -- whose children died in the Connecticut elementary school shooting last December -- with him to Washington Monday after a gun violence speech at the University of Hartford in Hartford, Conn. Obama hopes the D.C. presence of Sandy Hook parents will help convince lawmakers to pass a gun control bill that includes expanding background checks. Currently, the threat of a Senate filibuster hangs over the bill.

“We have to tell Congress it’s time to require a background check for anyone who wants to buy a gun so that people who are dangerous to themselves and others cannot get their hands on a gun,” Obama said in Monday's gun violence speech. “Let’s make that happen."

Politico reported that the parents have since signed with lobbying firm Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti, which has filed paperwork to lobby Congress on the proposed gun control legislation.