In announcing on Monday afternoon that he was dropping Senator Dianne Feinstein’s gun control bill from consideration by the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said, “Right now her amendment using the most optimistic numbers has less than 40 votes. That’s not 60. I have to get something on the floor so we can have votes on that issue…” He added:

I’m not going to try to put something on the floor that won’t succeed. I want something that will succeed. I think the worst of all worlds would be to bring something to the floor and it dies there.

Reid also said he was dropping from consideration Senator Charles Schumer’s bill to expand background checks.

Feinstein noted her regrets, saying “I tried my best. I tried to make the case for it … obviously I’m disappointed … the enemies on this are very powerful.”

Feinstein’s bill would

ban the sale, transfer, manufacturing of importation of 150 specific firearms including semiautomatic rifles or pistols that can be used with a detachable or fixed ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds and have specific military-style features, including pistol grips, grenade launchers or rocket launchers.

In introducing her bill in January, she continued to confuse the term “military assault weapons” with civilian semi-automatic weapons: “The common thread in each of these [recent] shootings is the gunman used a semi-automatic assault weapon [with] large capacity ammunition magazines. Military assault weapons only have one purpose and in my opinion, it’s for the military.”

Liberal lawyer Mark Kogan, writing at his blog policymic.com, said that Feinstein’s introduction of a ban on these so-called assault weapons was dead on arrival in the Senate from the very beginning. In fact, he said, her bill has

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Photo of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.): AP Images