Biden to preside over Senate gun control vote

4/17/2013
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the dedication of a room in the Capitol Visitors Center to slain congressional staffer Gabriel Zimmerman on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Tuesday, April 16, 2013. Zimmerman died two years ago in the Tucson, Ariz., attack that critically wounded Giffords and took six lives. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the dedication of a room in the Capitol Visitors Center to slain congressional staffer Gabriel Zimmerman on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Tuesday, April 16, 2013. Zimmerman died two years ago in the Tucson, Ariz., attack that critically wounded Giffords and took six lives. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden says he will preside over the vote today in the Senate on expanding background checks for gun sales.

That vote on the centerpiece of the Obama administration’s gun control proposals faces almost certain defeat.

Biden says the U.S. eventually will have tighter gun control measures. He says the public is ahead of elected officials in supporting measures to reduce gun control.

The vice president also serves as president of the Senate, but only casts a vote in tie-breaking situations.

Biden was a major advocate for gun control in the 1990s when he represented Delaware in the Senate. He’s been heading the Obama administration’s push on gun control.