Gun Control Debate Looms

Gun control is on everybody's mind in the wake of the Newtown school shooting. Some of the latest developments and coverage:

• The Washington Post takes a look at the six people who will be most instrumental in the looming debate: President Obama, who's being cautious so far; Michael Bloomberg, who is pushing for revamped laws and has the money to perhaps even compete with the NRA's influence; Dianne Feinstein, who's planning to introduce an assault weapons ban in the Senate; Carolyn McCarthy, a Congresswoman whose husband was killed and son injured in a 1993 train shooting; Orrin Hatch, one Republican who may actually be open to gun control; and Harry Reid and other Senate Democrats facing re-election in pro-gun states.

• Senate Democrats appear to be gearing up for a gun control fight. Even Joe Manchin III, the Democratic West Virginia senator known for his pro-gun-rights stance, is changing his tune a bit, the New York Times reports. "I don’t know anybody in the sporting or hunting arena that goes out with an assault rifle," he said this morning on MSNBC. "I don’t know anybody who needs 30 rounds in a clip to go hunting. I mean, these are things that need to be talked about."
• One issue in the gun control debate could hit the Supreme Court soon: whether people have the right to bear arms in public. An appeals court recently struck down the last state ban on concealed weapons, but that ruling is "somewhat at odds" with other federal court rulings upholding state gun laws, the AP reports. Competing rulings could lead to a high court case, experts say.

For more, see today's opinion columns on the gun control debate. (More gun control stories.)