Donovan Slack

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – The Senate voted Thursday to allow further consideration of bipartisan legislation banning gun sales to people on the terrorism "no-fly" list.

Senate Republicans could have killed the measure, but several sided with Democrats in allowing it to go forward.

But it is not clear it has enough support to pass. Fifty-two senators voted to keep considering the bill, but it will ultimately need 60 votes to be adopted. Majority Whip Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, had called it a "test vote to see what it looks like.”

It doesn't look great. To reach the threshold, supporters could set their sights on picking up the backing of Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif, outspoken advocates for a no-fly/no-buy ban who didn't vote Thursday.

But they would then have to flip six Republicans who voted to kill the legislation, a daunting task.

Still, Democrats declared victory in simply keeping the compromise — crafted by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine., and a handful of colleagues from both parties — alive for another chance.

"We won the vote, Collins won that vote," Democratic Leader Harry Reid , Nev., said, adding that the National Rifle Association "lost this one."

He called on Republican leaders to allow another vote to actually try and pass the proposal. "It’s the right thing for the country," Reid said.

The effort to forge the compromise began last week after Democrats led by Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy filibustered for nearly 15 hours on the Senate floor demanding a vote on gun control. The chamber took votes Monday defeating four partisan gun proposals largely along party lines.

In order to succeed with the current party split in the Senate, legislation needs support from both sides of the aisle, so those advocating any changes to gun laws have shifted their hopes to Collins' compromise proposal, even though it’s a narrow sliver of what gun control advocates had called for after the massacre Jun 12 in Orlando.

It would ban gun sales to roughly 109,000 people, including 2, 700 Americans, who are on two lists: The no-fly list, which prevents them from boarding commercial planes flying to, from or over the United States; and a so-called “selectee list,” which mandates they receive extra scrutiny at airports before flying.

The measure, proposed as an amendment to a spending bill funding the Justice Department, would allow individuals denied firearms to appeal in court. It would also mandate notification of law enforcement if someone who was on broader terrorism watch lists within the past five years tries to buy a gun.

Orlando shooter Omar Mateen had been on a watch list in 2013 and 2014 but was taken off when the FBI closed its investigation of him. He legally purchased a semi-automatic rifle and pistol before launching the killing spree at Pulse nightclub that left 49 dead and 53 others injured.

Under Collins’ amendment, federal authorities would have had to have been notified of the purchases, giving them an opportunity to surveil him and possibly prevent his tragic scheme.

While public attention shifted to the Democrats’ sit-in on the House floor demanding a vote there on gun control, Collins and supporters of her amendment had quietly been trying to drum up votes.

Murphy, who led the filibuster last week, said Thursday's vote "represented the largest defection of Republicans from the gun lobby in the modern history of the anti-gun violence movement."

“Between the Senate filibuster, the House sit-in, and this vote, we have helped create a massive uprising of support in favor of laws to make our nation safer from gun violence," he said. "And while I know we are far from the finish line, this has been a momentous last eight days for this crusade.”

Senators seek bipartisan deal to ban gun sales to people on no-fly list