(Image source: Politico / M. Scott Mahaskey ) BY ALEX MALLIN   A little more than four months after the Sandy Hook school shooting, Senate Democrats have virtually conceded defeat on an assault weapons ban being a part of their package of gun control proposals. “We cannot have votes on anything unless I get some votes on the floor. Its a legislative impossibility.” (Via  BBC ) That’s Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid speaking on the decision to remove the ban. He says the votes simply aren’t there. The ban was first proposed by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein in response to the Newtown mass shooting last December which resulted in the death of 26 people, 20 of whom were children. (Via USA Today ) The bill would have restored provisions from Feinstein’s previous decade-long assault weapons ban that expired back in 2004. (Via Fox News ) But it met a great deal of resistance in committee hearings from Republicans like Texas Senator Ted Cruz. “It seems to me that all of us should begin as our foundational document with the Constitution. And the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights provides that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” (Via NBC ) The Senate Judiciary Committee had voted just a week before to pass the assault ban, but Reid said the numbers didn’t reflect the majority that would be needed in the Senate. (Via New York Daily News ) Feinstein has had a personal connection to gun violence ever since she witnessed the assassination of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Board of Supervisors member Harvey Milk in 1978. Her bill would have put a ban on more than 150 types of assault weapons as well as a ban on high capacity magazines. (Via Politico ) Feinstein says she will still offer her bill up for an amendment to the gun bill that reaches the Senate, but says she’s not optimistic because of vocal opposition in Congress. (Via Los Angeles Times ) This strays from the views of the White House and also from public opinion polls on the matter. In January the Pew Research Foundation  found that 55% of Americans favored the ban. Other gun measures such as universal background checks and school safety measures are still circulating through committees and are expected to arrive for debate on the Senate floor in mid-April.