Biden said he 'hasn’t really discussed' his plans with the president yet. | REUTERS Obama in dark on Biden gun plan

Vice President Joe Biden is planning a new gun control offensive — he just hasn’t told the president yet.

Biden told a group of law enforcement officials Thursday that he is planning even more travel, with trips around the country to stump for a renewed push on expanded background checks and gun-trafficking laws that failed to pass the Senate last month.


But Biden volunteered that he “hasn’t really discussed” his plans with President Barack Obama and plans to lead the gun control charge on his own, according to two law enforcement officials who attended the meeting. The 90-minute meeting in Biden’s office was an attempt to move forward after the failed effort on background checks.

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Biden will appear Friday night at a South Carolina Democratic dinner that’s his first stop in a key 2016 primary state. He told the law enforcement officials Thursday that he is planning even more travel, with trips around the country to stump for a renewed push on the failed gun measures.

The vice president rattled off poll numbers of senators the White House and its gun control allies think they can win over and said he’ll lead the effort to tweak legislation to give recalcitrant senators the cover to vote for expanded background checks.

“He was talking like he was going to be leading it,” a person who was at the meeting said. “He didn’t mention any other senators in terms of leading the charge.”

Biden’s suggestion that he hasn’t informed Obama of his plans echoes statements he made in December and January when he held a series of meetings with advocates interested in curbing gun violence. At that time, Biden said he would gather gun control proposals and determine which ones to take to the president.

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Biden, of course, also has a history of getting himself ahead of Obama on issues, most notably on gay marriage. Biden last year told “Meet the Press” that he supported gay marriage before Obama had himself announced he supported it.

Days later, after a frenzy of criticism, Obama announced that he too supported gay marriage, but not without signaling his frustration with Biden, who he said got “a little bit over his skis.”

White House officials said Obama had planned to finish his “evolution” — as he famously described his gay marriage position in 2010 — on the issue later in the year but said Biden forced his hand.

The meeting in Biden’s ceremonial office followed a similar session last week for leading gun control groups. Like that meeting, Thursday’s gathering focused more on what will happen next than what mistakes led to the failure of the background checks bill offered by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).

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“His candid request was for us to tell him what can be done differently,” said Jon Adler, national president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association. “His sense was not to go back to the drawing board with the same thing that just lost.”

Adler added: “You bet on a horse and lose, you’re not going to bet on the same exact horse in the same race.”

People who attended the meeting also said Biden agreed with a characterization that the White House and gun control allies failed to properly educate the public about what was in the Manchin-Toomey bill.

The White House referred questions to Biden’s office, which declined to comment on the meeting.

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During the meeting, Biden and an aide ticked through polling data for a handful of senators targeted by gun control groups after the background checks vote failed. To the law enforcement officials, he cited polling that shows Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) have seen precipitous drops in their approval ratings since last month’s vote.

Biden also told the group that he plans to travel to those senators’ home states to push for background checks.

“He’s going to go on a road trip,” said Aaron Kennard, the executive director of the National Sheriffs Association. “He’s going to meet with the constituents in the states that voted against it and see if he can rally some support.”

Adler said Biden was optimistic throughout the meeting.

“The point he was trying to illustrate was we shouldn’t despair,” Adler said. “He said the outcome shouldn’t be a disincentive for us to move forward.”

Biden also boasted that he won the vote of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), a red-state Democrat facing reelection in 2014, thanks to longstanding family relationships.

“He took credit for Landrieu,” said one law enforcement official who attended the meeting. “He said, ‘I used my long relationship with her father and her brother and her to get her to vote with us.’”

Landrieu’s father, Moon Landrieu, served in Congress, as New Orleans mayor and as secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Her brother, Mitch Landrieu, is now the mayor of New Orleans. Biden headlined a New Orleans fundraiser for Mary Landrieu in January.

Biden didn’t suggest when a new White House gun control push might begin, but officials with gun control groups and aides to senators working on the issue said no action is likely until after the Senate is finished working on comprehensive immigration reform.

Baltimore County Police Chief Jim Johnson, who attended the session, said Biden is “not inclined to weaken” the Manchin-Toomey expanded background checks proposal.

But Johnson said Biden did make it clear he is trying to find ways to win enough votes to pass a background checks bill.

“The vice president made it clear that he is, that many are trying, to understand why certain elected officials voted no,” said Johnson, who is also chairman of the National Law Enforcement Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence. “And he has, as well as many of us, reached out to these individuals and are trying to understand, ‘Why did you vote no?’ And that effort is under way.”

People who attended the meeting also said Biden told the group that he didn’t want to hear criticism from them in the news media if he hadn’t heard it first in person.

“He said he wanted everybody to know there or privately later whether they were with him,” said a person who attended the meeting. “He said he didn’t want to be surprised. He said he wouldn’t take it personally, but he didn’t want to find out after the fact.”

And while Biden asked the law enforcement officials for input, one who attended said the meeting was more of a request from the vice president for support than a discussion about what to do next.

“It was a typical dog-and-pony show,” Kennard said. “He does all the talking. We do all the listening.”