The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved a bill to crack down on people who buy guns and transfer them to others who would be barred by law from buying the weapons themselves — so called "straw purchases."

It is the first legislative action in either chamber following the December mass killing in a Connecticut elementary shooting.

The Judiciary Committee approved the straw-purchase legislation with the support of only one Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa. Grassley, the top Republican on the panel, said he was voting for the bill with the understanding that Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., would continue to work with him to refine the language before the bill gets to the Senate floor