While there's already been downside for those who voted against the bill, today we learn that red state Democrats who voted in favor of the bill have been rewarded in the polls. In North Carolina, 52 percent of voters said they're more likely to reelect Sens. Kay Hagan of North Carolina because of her vote, while just 26 percent said the opposite. Meanwhile, in Louisiana, 45 percent said Sen. Mary Landrieu's vote boosted their likelihood of voting for the Democrat, compared to just 25 percent who said it makes them less likely to vote for her. She also saw her net approval rating tick up by six percentage points.

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The Crickett is a small, air-light firearm billed as "My First Rifle" by gun manufacturer Keystone Sporting Arms. It comes in pink and blue. It is a "training wheels" gun, part of the growing youth market in firearms.

As NBC News reports:

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Up until today, you might have been able to write all that anti-democratic pathology off as one infecting only the Republican Party's politicians and institutional leadership, but not its rank-and-file voters. But then this morning Fairleigh Dickinson University released this gun control-related pollshowing that authoritarianism runs throughout the the entire party.

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For critics of American foreign policy, it’s all but axiomatic that the designation of a violent act as “terrorism” says as much about the accuser as it does about the accused. The U.S. government itself can’t decide on a single working definition of the term, but a standard one denotes unlawful politically-motivated violence designed to intimidate a government or civilian population. Put pressure on any part of this definition and it starts to buckle.

“Unlawful”? Why can’t terrorists — as per the word’s original meaning — be state actors? “Civilian population”? The category becomes meaningless if individuals can be retroactively subtracted from it for the crime of being struck by an American drone.

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Now, almost a week after the Tsarnaev brothers fought a rolling street battle with dozens of heavily armed police officers, we learned Wednesday night that they had only a single handgun, according to sources who spoke with ABC News and the AP, something that directly contradicts what officials had previously said.

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Illinois State Police said they believe Rick O. Smith, 43, entered the Manchester home through the back door and shot the victims at close range, leaving two women, one man and the boys dead. Two people were found in a bedroom, two in a second bedroom and the man in the hallway. A sixth victim, a 6-year-old girl, was injured and taken to a Springfield hospital.

"The offender took the 6-year-old out of the residence and put her in the hands of a neighbor," State Police Lt. Col. Todd Kilby said.

Officials have not revealed a motive for the killings. Police said the victims are related and they believe Smith and the victims were acquainted but they didn't provide details of the relationships.

A bystander called police and told them that Smith fled the home in a white sedan. A car chase ensued, leading authorities to the nearby town of Winchester, where Smith and officers exchanged gunfire. Officers shot Smith, and he later died at a hospital.

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Here's Taranto parsing the forensics of her column-writing abilities on an NRA radio show Friday, caught by Media Matters' Timothy Johnson yesterday:

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The senator, a lawyer and reserve Air Force JAG officer himself, called for stripping Tsarnaev of his constitutional rights to due process even before the 19-year-old was captured Friday evening. "The accused perpetrators of these acts were not common criminals attempting to profit from a criminal enterprise," Graham said on Twitter on Friday. "Under the Law of War we can hold #Boston suspect as a potential enemy combatant not entitled to Miranda warnings or appointment of counsel."

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But police in the state tell Reuters and the AP that neither brother had the permits required to carry a firearm in Massachusetts, which has some of the strictest gun laws in the country.

This isn't particularly surprising, since both brothers may have had trouble buying a gun from a federally licensed firearms dealer. Younger brother Dzhokhar is 19, but federal law prohibits dealers from selling handguns to someone under the age of 21. Older brother Tamerlan was arrested for domestic violence in 2009 and if he was convicted (reports conflict at the moment), he would be prohibited from purchasing any kind of firearm from a dealer.

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Showing flashes of anger and passion rare for this president, Obama laid into the National Rifle Association and Senate Republicans, saying they "willfully lied on this bill," especially by erroneously claiming the bipartisan background check legislation known as Manchin-Toomey would create a national gun registry when, in fact, the bill made creating one a felony punishable by 15 years in prison. Even though politicians lie all the time, the word "lie" is almost never uttered in public discourse in Washington, let alone by the president, underscoring his unusual anger.

"Unfortunately, this pattern of spreading untruths about this legislation served a purpose. Those lies upset an intense minority of gun owners and that in turn intimidated a lot of senators," Obama said. "There were no coherent arguments as to why we shouldn't do this, it came down to politics."

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Obama called the Senate rejection of expanded background checks "round one," and asked for those who "care deeply about preventing gun violence" to continue to push lawmakers on common sense reform. He closed his speech by saying: "I believe we are going to get this done. Sooner or later we're going to get this right."

Full transcript here:

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The proposal, authored by Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, was the best shot at passing any kind of expansion on background checks, even though it was far weaker than what Democrats and gun safety advocates had hoped for. But opponents of the bill deliberately misrepresented the bill by claiming it could lead to a national gun registry, which many gun advocates fear could lead to confiscation or even tyranny, even though the Manchin-Toomey proposal actually made it a felony for officials to create a registry.

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Update 2 (7:30 EDT): The chat has been rescheduled for Wednesday, April 17, at 12:40 p.m. EDT. See you then.

Update (3:30 EDT): As we follow this story out of Boston, this chat has been postponed for now. Please stay tuned for the new start time. Thank you.

Original post: The gun reform bill currently being discussed in Congress faces an uncertain fate. And while few on either side of the issue are pleased with the "compromise," which focuses on background checks with some exemptions, the question remains: What is the best way to make Americans more safe from gun violence? As we watch the political drama play out, we asked two commentators with divergent views (and a zeal for debating) to discuss the issue with us — and you.

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But on a day when the forces of violence have clearly achieved a temporary victory – the forces of good always win in the end, as Patton Oswalt beautifully notes -- our failure to combat the most common source of violence in our culture, the proliferation and easy availability of guns, seems particularly tragic. The fact that today is also the sixth anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre adds just another layer of poignance to the news. While xenophobes obsess about a possible Muslim or al-Qaida role in the bombing, we ignore the most obvious ways to keep ourselves safer: by cracking down on automatic assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and the loopholes that let evil people kill so easily.

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Here's what we know about the incident: 42-year-old Kirk Franklin was found dead in the infield of the Texas Motor Speedway, where he had been camping. Police say the man died of a “self-inflicted” gunshot wound, apparently after getting into an argument with other campers. Alcohol may have been involved.

Of the more than 32,000 firearm-related deaths in 2011, almost 20,000 -- 62 percent -- were suicides. While horrific mass shootings like the one in Newtown, Conn., provoke national outrage and demands for legislation, they represent less than 1 percent of all gun deaths. It's the kind of quotidian but lethal admixture of mental health issues, interpersonal dispute and the presence of a firearm that is responsible for the majority of all gun deaths in this country.

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“Sooo very glad to hear this,” a woman whose grandchildren attend the school wrote in response to a local newspaper report touting the new policy, adding, “All schools in America should do this.”

As The New York Times reports, arming teachers didn't cause a stir in West Plains, a community "in which the idea of guns in classrooms is not necessarily intimidating":

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And if they don't?

"We came here to do something," Manchin said. "We've got a chance to make a difference in people's lives. We have a chance to save lives and not infringe on law-abiding citizens of this country, gun owners like myself and Pat. We have that opportunity, and God help us if we don't do it."

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"Adam would come home with bruises all over his body," the relative told the Daily News. "His mom would ask him what was wrong, and he wouldn't say anything. He would just sit there."

The family member went on to say that Lanza's mother was distressed by the abuse, and didn't believe school officials were protecting her son: "Nancy felt fiercely protective of him. She was convinced the school wasn't doing enough to protect Adam. It made her irate."

The relative also appears to attribute Lanza's emotional and mental health problems to the experience, telling the Daily News that he never "seemed right" after his time in Sandy Hook.

“He was a sick boy,” the relative said.

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Then, somehow, things seemed to get even worse for the NRA. After a full week of silence after the tragedy, it held a press conference in Washington, D.C., in which its leader, Wayne LaPierre, inspired laughter and ridicule by supporting zero reforms to guns, aside from a call for more of them (arm teachers!).

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He followed it up soon after with another abortion-related tweet:

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