Reaction to Senate's rejection of gun control legislation as passionate as it is varied

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A day after the senate rejected a proposal to increase gun control in the United States, groups on both sides of the issue have been speaking out on the controversial news.

The bill, which needed 60 votes to pass, received only 54 votse on the Senate floor yesterday, leaving many in support of gun control furious.

"The fact that the U.S. Senate couldn't even find its backbone enough to pass a uniform background check bill for criminals, is criminal," said John Rosenthal of the nonprofit organization, Stop Handgun Violence.

"There's no way to know if a gun buyer is a criminal without a background check. I mean, that should be low-hanging fruit," he added.

According to several polls, more than 90 percent of the American public agrees with Rosenthal.

However others, such as Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson of the South Central L.A. Tea Party, see background checks as a threat to their privacy.

"The government would have too much private information on us," Peterson said. "They would know all the citizens who own weapons and they would be able to eventually vote to ban guns and take our weapons."

Margot Bennett, Executive Director of Women Against Gun Violence, believes that the government must obtain this "private information" to prevent the type of violent tragedies that have rocked the country in recent months and years.

Bennett maintains that change can be realized if voters make the effort.

"It's going to take all of us," Bennett said. "There are more Americans who support reasonable gun safety legislation than there are people who don't. It's up to us to speak out, to pressure our legislature, to make our voices heard."

The president and other leaders who supported the bill, said that though they lost this round, the effort to increase gun control would continue.