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As President Obama takes to the road to sell a "comprehensive set of commonsense ideas" about gun violence, Senate Democrats are reportedly working on a gun-control bill that will include all of the his policy proposals — except the one that might be the biggest. According to The Wall Street Journal, the new proposal would include a ban on large-ammunition magazines; improve record keeping and tracking of gun sales; add provisions to keep guns from people with mental health problems; push for universal background checks on all gun sales; and even create efforts to block people from states with strict gun laws from crossing state lines to places they can buy them more easily.

What the legislation won't include is an assault-weapons ban, the most contentious issue currently on the table. Or not on the table, as most experts decided a while ago that it has no chance of happening. That didn't stop Sen. Diane Feinstein from crafting a comprehensive gun bill and introducing it with the support of several other Senators. The bill will might even be voted on the Senate floor. Heck, there's a very, very slim chance it could even pass. But since there's virtually no way it can survive the House of Representatives and become law, the bill is more likely to become a sacrificial offering that allows its very public defeat to lead the way to a compromise on the other issues.