Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that he had stripped a proposed assault-rifle ban from gun-control legislation the Senate will consider next month. The measure, introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein after a gunman used a semi-automatic rifle in December's Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, had been approved by a Senate committee, but Reid said it would have caused Republicans to block the entire package of gun laws, including parts that have bipartisan support. Jim Wiltsie, whose cousin, teacher Victoria Soto, died protecting her students at Sandy Hook, called the death of the assault-rifle ban "heartbreaking." [New York Daily News]