Winner of the week: the gun lobby.

If the past few months have taught us anything, it must be that the gun lobby, particularly the National Rifle Association, wields a disproportional influence in Washington, D.C. Even though most polls show Americans overwhelmingly support more stringent background checks and increased regulation of high-capacity semi-automatic weapons, a vocal, organized and well-funded gun lobby has been able to counteract popular opinion.

More than four months of legislative efforts to curb gun violence came to a head this week, when the U.S. Senate voted 54-46 to reject the bipartisan Manchin-Toomey plan to extend background checks to sales made at gun shows and online. The decision was a decisive victory for gun lobby groups like the NRA and their supporters – in fact, it was a victory for them alone.

The NRA reacted loudly to gun control bills, initiating a series of advertising campaigns attacking supporters of gun legislation and proclaiming the widespread availability of firearms is not a cause of gun violence. It painted legislative efforts to stem the tide of gun violence as an effort to take away guns from gun owners and an attack on Second Amendment rights.

What is not clear is why the NRA has responded in such a reactionary and dogmatic way to undoubtedly moderate legislation such as the Manchin-Toomey plan.

There was no element of government tyranny in the bill – it was not an effort to take away guns from gun owners, nor was it in any way an infringement on Second Amendment rights. It was a common-sense effort to institute criminal background checks at gun shows and on the Internet, where the sale of firearms is currently unregulated. The plan would only have had a negative impact on Americans who want easy access to unregulated firearms – in particular, convicted felons.

This was an opportunity to make it harder for criminals to get ahold of deadly weapons without making life terribly inconvenient for law-abiding. Yet the gun lobby reacted in characteristically dogmatic fashion, browbeat Republican politicians and crushed the plan before it left the Senate.

This week the gun lobby won, and shouted down the rest of America. So here’s to you, gun lobby, and especially you, NRA – oh, also, go fuck yourselves.