Startling change in gun proposal

>>> three months after the newtown shootings, the white house and congressional democrats are pushing new limits on guns. the most ambitious of those proposals has for all intents and purposes been tabled. harry reid told reporters on tuesday that senator dianne feinstein 's assault weapons ban will not be part of any gun bill he brings to the floor.

>> right now her amendment using the most optimistic numbers has less than 40 votes. that's not 60. i'm not going to try to put something on the floor that won't succeed. i want something that will succeed.

>> i asked him if this could be part of a package. he said no. this is very important to me. and i'm not going to lay down and play dead .

>> we're going to work on thisment we're going to find the votes. it deserves a vote. see if we can get it done.

>> nbc's senior political editor mark murray is here with the morning's first read. he joins me now. mark, you know this is interesting. for those of us who watch politics, the assault weapons ban expired in 2004 . it hasn't really been too much of an issue since then. came back to the forefront with newtown. but it didn't really have pathway forward. there is a lot of red state democrats that were uncomfortable with this vote and even harry reid who had a strong nra backing in the past making a move to pull it out saying don't let the perfect get in the way of the good.

>> the luke, the politics were never there as harry reid mentioned. it had about 40 votes. not only do you have to have a majority of support, it didn't have the 60 votes that ended up stopping a republican filibuster. so the game all along has been background checks . and that might not be as interesting or striking to the media as the assault weapons ban . but most gun control advocates always saw this as the most realistic chance for big time reform. and that's the thing to watch as we look forward. it's still unclear if harry reid is even going to have the gun check part in his overall legislation. his folks are saying that it's likely it will be in there. but that is the game to watch. assault weapons ban never had the votes. background checks potentially.

>> background checks and straw purchases, new federal guaranteed sentencing for that for those who buy guns from somebody else illegally. interesting to see if this gets out of the senate. it doesn't face a easy path in the senate by any means. south carolina , the state that keeps on giving, yesterday governor mark sanford won or was in the top two for his primary on the gop side. stephen colbert 's sister won the democratic side. but mark sanford yesterday, no guarantee he can wheat this guy curtis bostic who came in number two or larry grooms. it's going to be quite a fight for sanford going forward.

>> he has a very tough path. he got 37% of the vote. that means 63% voted against the person who they probably know the best. he was their former congressman, former governor. he has perfect name id in that district. but where he actually caught a break is the fact that curtis boss toik setic seems to finish second. it's not a done deal. there could be an automatic recount to see who is the number two. and the runoff is less than two weeks away. so there is that uncertainty there. there is the fact that bostic doesn't live in the congressional district which could give mark sanford and his folks some firepower to hit back at bostic . so in some ways if i'm the mark sanford folks, i'll feeling good.

>> he still has a lot of money left over from the gubernatorial war chest . mark murray , thank you so much for joining us.

>> thank you.

>> we appreciate it.