Jeff R. Bottari/Getty Images

Mark Kelly expressed the anger that he and his wife, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, feel today after the Senate failed to pass the Manchin-Toomey background check compromise.

"Gabby is angry today, and she's horrified by the decision of a minority of her former colleagues to block progress on this measure," Kelly said during a news conference at the National Press Club. "Gabby knows that passing that bill into law was the right thing to do.

RELATED: Obama Takes Senate to Task for Failed Gun Control Measure

"Along with so many parents from Newtown, so many of our former neighbors in Tucson, who were here in Washington this week, Gabby's disappointed, and she's angry, and so am I, but neither of us are deterred," he added.

Kelly said that some senators voted against the Manchin-Toomey bill "out of fear" and insisted that "if yesterday's vote was a secret vote, it would've passed no doubt.

"We are not deterred by the actions of a small group of senators who I really feel that history will judge as fearful obstructionists," he said.

Kelly said his and Giffords' super PAC, Americans for Responsible Solutions, is preparing to release ads thanking those senators who "showed some backbone in the face of relentless pressure and fear-mongering from the gun lobby." He said the group would air ads in the coming days supporting Republican senators Susan Collins and John McCain, as well as Democratic senators Mary Landrieu and Kay Hagan, who all voted in favor of the background check measure.

While Americans for Responsible Solutions said its ads would start positive, Kelly said it would release ads attacking both Republican and Democratic senators who voted against the bill "at some point."

Asked if they plan on working to oust any senators up for re-election in 2014, Kelly said, "It's a target rich environment after yesterday."