Wednesday’s vote was a jarring blow to the drive to curb firearms sparked by December’s massacre of children and staff at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. President Barack Obama made broadened background checks the centerpiece of his gun control proposals.

The roll call was also a victory for the National Rifle Association, which opposed the plan as an ineffective infringement on gun rights.

The proposal would have required background checks for all transactions at gun shows and online. Currently they must occur for sales handled by licensed gun dealers.

The system is designed to keep criminals and people with mental problems from getting guns.

Rob Portman was among the senators voting against the measure.  His office released the following statement:

“Having carefully reviewed the Manchin-Toomey legislation, unfortunately, I do not believe it would be effective in preventing the kind of heartbreaking loss of life seen in Newtown or in other recent tragic incidents.  It does, however, contain several provisions that would make it more difficult for law-abiding Ohioans to exercise their Constitutionally-guaranteed rights. I do believe there are actions Congress can and should take to reduce gun violence without infringing on Second Amendment rights, and I look forward to supporting such amendments.

Ohio Public Radio’s Bill Cohen sat in on the session. Click the play button above to hear his report.

The science teacher at Orrville City Schools is also an officer with the nearby Lawrence Township Police Department.

The local superintendent says there was little opposition to the move from the district about an hour southwest of Cleveland.

The TV at the Powder Room Shooting Range in Powell was tuned to President Obama’s speech, but the sound of gun fire made it hard to hear him.

Gun owner Ron Merritt of Columbus kept one ear on the president as he waited his turn to practice his marksmanship. Merritt doubts whether the president’s actions will reduce gun violence.

I was pretty disappointed; I felt that none of his proposals are actually going to deal with the issue of violence.

Central Ohio gun owners don’t seem swayed by the recent mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Gun sales are up, and a half-dozen interviews with gun shop customers indicates a frustration with talk of banning assault weapons, and high capacity magazines.

“I’m hoping that they do sit down and discuss it and someone does an analysis of why do people commit mass murder and find out what the root cause analysis is and not just immediately go after the object, the inanimate object that has no will of its own, the individual has the will, not the object,” said Powder Room part owner Steve Yuszka.

As Mitch and Debbie Abram finished a round of target shooting at the Powder Room, they said they worry more about keeping 2nd amendment rights in the wake of the president’s actions.

Mitch: “Well quite honestly, I think it’s a violation of our constitutional rights.”

Debbie: “I keep going back to one man and that’s Hitler. It’s not the guns, it’s the man. And if the government takes your rights away and your guns what else can they do?

Reporter: “I have to ask though, Is that a real legitimate fear? Do you actually think that there’s a possibility that this country would go that far?”

Debbie Abram: “Yes, sir. I do.”

Reporter: “You do?”

Debbie Abrams: “I do, I absolutely do. I mean I see so much now that actually shocks me.”

As for recent surveys that show a majority of Americans disagree with her, and support additional restrictions, Debbie Abram says she doesn’t believe the polls.

Some of the President’s proposals require congressional approval.

Click here to hear from a gun control advocate who is applauding the President’s efforts to reduce gun violence.

“The latest numbers just in are 759, over 700 of them in the state of Ohio.,” says Jim Irvine with the Buckeye Firearms Foundation.

I expected several hundred people to respond to this, but not the response that we have gotten.

The classes are still being developed and there’s no timeline on when they’d be offered yet. But Irvine says the gun right group decided to offer the three-day program to educators and school employees after the deadly shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut last month.

He says it’s time districts reexamined “gun free zone” policies, because he says they leave teachers, administrators and school personnel vulnerable.

Having a policy that helps someone achieve a high body count is a bad idea. It’s a failed policy, and we need to get rid of that and put in place policies that actually work to lower our body count.

Though hundreds have signed up for the training, there are more than 150,000 educators, school officials and other personnel in the state of Ohio. And that training would not mean a teacher could carry a weapon into a school unless the district specifically authorized it.

Damon Asbury with the Ohio School Boards Association says it’s too early to tell whether districts want to go that way.

The conversation I’ve heard by and large is that ‘Just arming teachers may not be the most effective or even safest way to go about providing security.’ There’s lot of pros and cons, I’m sure, but we’ve had school shootings in settings where there have been armed guards.

But Patricia Frost Brooks with the state’s largest teachers’ union, the Ohio Education Association, says teachers shouldn’t be forced into what she calls a dual role.

We aren’t going to be there to be armed and carry a weapon and then be the academic leaders and do the teaching and preparing students for this 21st century skills.

The attorney general has said he supports having someone with experience and training posted in a school with access to a gun. But for now, Mike DeWine is talking up training his office is offering starting next week to school employees on how to prepare for, to stop, and to deal with a school shooting situation.

“I think it really comes back to what that local school wants to do and I think the courses that we’re offering, frankly, are going to help that school better understand the nature of the threat.

“I think once they get that information, they’re going to be in a better position to make, as a community, a decision about whether they want someone actually in that school who has a gun who has been trained.”

Meanwhile, the attorney general says there are still about 50 schools out of around 5,000 that have not provided his office with floor plans for their buildings and required emergency safety plans. The AG’s office contacted those which hadn’t complied after last year’s shooting in Chardon, and then again after last month’s tragedy in Connecticut.

The Buckeye Firearms Association announced the new training at a townhall meeting Thursday night. The first three-day course for 24 teachers is scheduled for early next month. The course will include class tuition, ammunition, and lodging.

“The long-term goal is to develop a standard Armed Teacher curriculum and make the training available to any teacher or school official,” said Ken Hanson, the organization’s legal chair.

“To begin, we will use funds from our educational foundation and solicit donations from corporations to pay for the pilot program. Going forward, we will seek funding from a variety of sources to expand the program.”

The state will also begin offering “first-responder” training to teachers. Attorney General Mike DeWine says the course beginning January 14 will focus on identifying a potential attacker, and what to do in the event of a school shooting or other emergency.

DeWine says the decision to arm teachers in classrooms should rest with local school boards.

“The real first responders in these situations are teachers. They are the ones that are there,” DeWine said in a morning press conference.

DeWine says courses will start January 17. He says the recommendation for teacher training came out of the School Safety Task Force formed in the wake of the shooting that killed three students at Chardon High School last February.

DeWine says law enforcement officers and teachers could potentially be trained together. The training collaboration aims to bring together educators, police officers and mental health professionals.

When asked if teachers and staffers should be allowed to carry guns in school, DeWine said that is a decision left up to local school boards.

Click the play button above to hear more from Dem. State Rep. Tracy Maxwell Heard, and a response from one of the legislature’s biggest backers of gun owners’ rights.

Jack loved sports and was said to be a big fan of New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, who wrote the boy’s name on the cleats — along with the words “My Hero” — he wore Sunday.

Noah was “smart as a whip” and “just a really lively, smart kid,” according to an uncle, Alexis Haller.

The Hartford Courant reports that the boys’ memorial services will be the first for the children and six adults killed at the school. Other funerals will be held throughout the week.

Meanwhile, the investigation continues into the murders and the young man who authorities say brought a high-powered rifle, two handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition into the school — and then began killing the children and adults who tried to protect the youngsters, before taking his own life. Before the rampage at the school, authorities say, 20-year-old Adam Lanza also killed his mother Nancy at their home in Newtown.

The Associated Press writes this morning that people in Newtown who knew the mother, say Nancy Lanza spoke little about her home life. But, says the AP, “the divorced mother of two … was always glad to share talk of her beloved Red Sox, gardening and a growing enthusiasm for target shooting.”

We’re expecting to learn more this morning from a news briefing Connecticut State Police plan to hold in Newtown. We’ll also watch for other stories throughout the day about an event that President Obama says should be a wake-up call telling Americans that “we can do better than this.” And, that “if there’s even one step we can take” to prevent other such tragedies, it needs to be taken.

On Morning Edition, NPR’s Quil Lawrence summed up what’s known so far. State Police, Quil reported, say they have collected a great deal of evidence and that some of it “suggests a motive, which in the coming days will be made public.”

Also on Morning Edition, NPR’s Scott Horsley reported on the president’s address at Sunday evening’s memorial service for victims. And, Brigid Bergin of WNYC profiled a teacher who lives in Newtown near the Sandy Hook school, and how it’s not going to be easy for him to talk with his students in nearby Fairfield about what happened.

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

“It is, in the most profound way, utterly senseless,” says Rev. Tracey Lind from Trinity Cathedral.

Lind started out her Sunday sermon mourning the 28 people who died in Newtown, Conn., last Friday. Many churches around the country prayed for the victims – including 20 6- and 7-year-old children attending Newtown Elementary School.

And they reflected on the violence.

But at Trinity Cathedral, Lind suddenly changed gears.

“I’m going to invite you to sit in triads and talk about one or more of the following questions.”

Parishioners then received bulletins asking them to reflect on how they should mourn, how they can make sense of the tragedy, and where they see God in this whole mess.

Lind also wanted people to think about an Ohio bill that lawmakers passed Thursday now awaiting the governor’s signature.

House Bill 495 is going to increase the potential for future tragedies by allowing a gun, and specifically semi-automatic weapons and their magazines, to be transported in the same vehicle. And it will also allow people to have their firearms in their cars in the Statehouse parking garage.

“And all of our kids – I mean, I still remember my fourth- or fifth-grade class going down to the Statehouse to learn about state government. And we have an opportunity to say to our governor, with love and respect and accountability, ‘We would like you to stop this.’”

Lind handed out a sample letter in which parishioners could petition Kasich to veto the bill, which also addresses reciprocity with other states’ concealed carry permits.

State Rep. Terry Johnson, a freshman from rural southern Ohio, authored the legislation. He likens it to a driver’s license.

Each state has varying degrees of requirements to get a driver’s license, but nevertheless we recognize all licenses. The concealed handgun permits should function the same way. If someone has a California driver’s license, or an Arkansas driver’s license, and they come to Ohio, they still have to obey Ohio law when they’re here.”

Under current law if someone has a loaded magazine—or clip –and a gun, it’s considered a loaded weapon and it’s banned in a vehicle. The law would change that so loaded clips and guns could be carried side-by-side. Only a bullet-filled magazine actually inserted into a gun would be banned.

“House Bill 495 improves upon existing gun laws, making them easier to read, enforce and comply with.”

But back in Trinity Cathedral, Ward Heinz and Linda Zolten-Wood say state law should be going the other way, making it harder, not easier, to carry weapons and ammunition. They differ on whether their voices will be heard.

Ward Heinz: “I just think the NRA is so powerful and so wealthy, they have so much money…”

Linda Zolten-Wood: “Look at how much money was wasted on the election, and it’s meaningless now. We have a voice! And it does give me optimism. This is a next step with the letter-writing. This is definitive.”

Ward Heinz: “I’m grateful for this. And I’m grateful for your optimism. I just don’t share it when it comes to the NRA.”

Linda Zolten-Wood: “I’m not saying get rid of all guns. I’m saying regulate them as if they were gonna drive a car.”

Ward Heinz: “That may be the answer to the first question, ‘Where do you see God today?’”

But he and many people seemed to be looking for answers to that question in a spiritual, as well as political, way during the service. It closed with the reading of the names of the victims, including the shooter and his mother. Todd Ruth from Lakewood thought that was appropriate.

“We need to pray for him. He’s a child of God. The first thing you have to remember is that everyone is a child of God.”

Trinity Cathedral plans to gather as many letters as possible and send them to Gov. Kasich early this week.