Via TPM:

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) gave the Manchin-Toomey background check compromise a boost over the weekend by becoming the third Republican to support it, along with Sens. Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Mark Kirk (R-IL).

“I have decided to support the bipartisan compromise authored by Senators Joe Manchin and Pat Toomey to strengthen the background check system without in any way infringing on Second Amendment rights,” she said in a statement, calling it a “vast improvement” over universal background check proposals which she said included provisions that were “onerous and completely unnecessary.”

Collins kept her options open on the final legislation that emerges after amendments.

“The Manchin-Toomey amendment is a proposal I can and will support,” she said, “but it is impossible to predict at this point the final composition of the overall legislation.”