The AWB and magazine issues are dead for now, and the focus will be on background checks. What's probably behind this is that Harry Reid has about 7 or 8 Senators who are Dems from red states up for re-election in 2014. He wants to hold the Senate, and the Dems want to take the house. If this happens I think these items will be resurrected.

That said, Reid is a pitiful majority leader. He should have never bought the BS from the republicans about not changing the filibuster rule. They are holding up judges and everything else they can think of, while they whine about easter egg rolls and white house tours. We need an LBJ in the Senate.