Reid cuts back Senate gun control bill

Perhaps fearing that many of the provisions could not even get out of the Senate, Dem. Sen. Maj. Leader Harry Reid cut the assault weapons ban out of the Senate package. Broadening background checks might not make it either.  There seems to be consensus, however, on trying to crack down better on illegal gun trafficking (e.g. straw-man sales).  He also may have been worried about a possible anti-Dem. backlash in the next Congressional elections (as happened in the Clinton administration). Ideologues Obama, Schumer and  Feinstein threatened to fight on for the full package.   Although their crime-control effects are dubious at best, I support  cracking down on illegal trafficking.  This is clearly criminal activity.   The targets of these  measures are not law-abiding citizens.  Measures that go after the law-abiding (e.g. large magazine and "assault weapon" bans) threaten 2nd Amend rights and will do nothing about gun crime.  Why target law abiding citizens with arguably unconstitutonal  measures that will not cut crime?  The reason is, obviously, not crime control but ideological warriors fighting the culture wars, symbolic politics and symbolic (status) crusdades.