Washington ( CNN ) -- Behind-the-scenes dealing over reviving stalled gun control legislation will get a push next week when Sen. Joe Manchin , a strong proponent of expanding background checks , plans to meet individually with lawmakers , a Senate source tells CNN . The key question the conservative West Virginia Democrat wants answered is whether a `` minimal change '' to a compromise background check proposal that he co-authored but which failed to gain enough support in a vote last month would entice more senators to support it , the source said . Since the proposal he negotiated with Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania faltered , senators who voted against it have been hounded in their states during the current recess by outside proponents of expanding background checks . Sen. Kelly Ayotte has been the most high-profile target of such confrontations . The New Hampshire Republican was questioned at an event by Erica Lafferty , the daughter of Dawn Hochsprung , a school principal slain in the Newtown massacre last December . Lafferty asked `` why the burden of my mother being gunned down in the halls of her elementary school is n't as important '' as inconveniencing gun sellers . Lafferty was sent to Ayotte 's event by Mayors Against Illegal Guns , one of several gun control groups using the current congressional recess to take the gun control message out of Washington . And she followed that up with interviews with TV networks . The source said this sort of pressure from outside groups is a key to any hopes of swaying senators who may be open to supporting a modified proposal . In addition to confronting senators in person , groups have run ads against lawmakers who voted against the Toomey-Manchin compromise and have supported senators who supported it . The husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords , who was seriously wounded in a 2011 shooting in Arizona , wrote an opinion piece in the Houston Chronicle challenging the National Rifle Association over its opposition to expanded background checks . `` What most members of the NRA want from the organization and what the leadership is actually doing are not the same , '' Mark Kelly wrote . Thousands of NRA members are gathered in Houston this weekend for its annual convention . According to the Senate source , the pressure tactics appear to be working with polls showing most Americans favoring some sort of new gun restrictions . The signal Manchin has been getting from senators getting hammered at home , according to the source , is that they need to save face politically and any deal would hinge on whether they can argue that they extracted something new in the language . `` We have to figure out some sort of new sentence , one change to it so they can go back and say ' I fought to change this , ' '' said the source . At this point , however , it is not clear what the change would be . In order to pass any legislation around the issue , gun control advocates need find 60 votes in the Senate . Fifty-four senators backed the Mancin-Toomey amendment while 46 opposed it . Majority Leader Harry Reid supported it but only voted 'no ' in the end on procedural grounds to keep open the possibility of revisiting it later . The Senate source says Manchin 's prime targets to flip are all Republicans and similar to those under pressure from outside groups : Ayotte , Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona , Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada . According to the source , proponents hope that if Murkowski flips , those in favor of tightening gun laws will have a good shot at getting her fellow Alaskan , Sen. Mark Begich , to do the same . But a source close to Begich , however , told CNN that it is very unlikely that he 'd change his vote . He is up for reelection in 2014 in a state that is very pro-gun . The NRA is likely to be a power that looms large over any deal on background checks , much like it was during the last debate . After the compromise background check proposal failed , the NRA Institute for Legislative Action released a statement decrying the `` misguided '' amendment that , it said , would `` not reduce violent crime or keep our kids safe in their schools . '' `` This amendment would have criminalized certain private transfers of firearms between honest citizens , requiring lifelong friends , neighbors and some family members to get federal government permission to exercise a fundamental right or face prosecution , '' the NRA said . Wayne LaPierre , executive vice president of the NRA , made it clear on Friday that his organization would not budge on guns . `` All over this country , everywhere I go , people agree , they want bad guys taken off the streets and they want children protected in their schools , '' he said . `` And they do n't ' want their freedom taken away . '' In addition to LaPierre , several potential contenders for the 2016 GOP nomination will take the stage in Houston , including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas , Louisiana Gov . Bobby Jindal , Texas Gov . Rick Perry , former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania , and Wisconsin Gov . Scott Walker . Former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin spoke to the group as well . Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona , asked by one of the other victims of the Giffords shooting if he thought background checks would come up again , said there was a `` 50-50 '' chance that it would . A spokeswoman for Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana , one of the more high-profile Democrats to vote against the provision , told CNN that if such a bill were to come up , `` Max will evaluate it based on the feedback he gathers from the people of Montana , just as he always does with any legislation . '' But she also said that in his first vote , `` Montanans told Max loud and clear they did n't support new gun controls in the previous bill . '' CNN 's Kevin Liptak and Ashley Killough contributed to this report .
Co-author of expanded background checks proposal to meet with senators next week . Sen. Joe Manchin , D-West Virginia , is seeing if he can change legislation to get more votes . Comment: