Senate panel approves expanded background checks on gun sales

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Senate committee on Tuesday approved legislation that would expand background checks covering all gun sales.

The Judiciary Committee, however, did not take up a proposed ban on assault weapons, agreeing to put consideration of that measure off until Thursday at the earliest.

The Democratic proposal approved by the panel, 10-8, replaced efforts to develop a bipartisan approach to broaden federal background checks on people who purchase firearms.

President Barack Obama supports expanding those checks as well as a ban on so-called assault rifles like the type used in two recent mass shootings at a Connecticut elementary school and a theater in Colorado.