Of Course

[Content Note: Guns.]

Senate Democrats Concede Odds Still Against Sweeping Gun Control:

Senior Senate Democrats bluntly acknowledged Tuesday that a proposed federal ban on assault weapons will not become law, bowing to the inevitable political calculus that only lesser gun control measures stand a chance of passing Congress, despite three months of emotional national debate since the Connecticut school massacre.

In separate remarks to reporters, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., both said they do not see Feinstein's far-reaching proposal on assault weapons passing the Senate, let alone the Republican-led House, where opposition to the measure is even stronger.

"I very much regret it. I tried my best, but my best, I guess, wasn't good enough," Feinstein, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, said of her bill (S 150), which would ban the future production of 157 specific kinds of guns, as well as ammunition magazines holding more than 10 rounds.

I realize this legislation was not a panacea, but it would have been a start.