"Fiscal cliff" turmoil could hit 100 million taxpayers: U.S. IRS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. tax authorities warned on Wednesday that as many as 100 million taxpayers - far more than previously estimated - could face refund delays if lawmakers' "fiscal cliff" negotiations fail to fix the alternative minimum tax (AMT) before year-end.
The Internal Revenue Service said in a letter to lawmakers that it was raising its estimate on AMT impact from 60 million.
"It is becoming apparent that an even larger number of taxpayers - 80 to 100 million of the 150 million total returns expected to be filed - may be unable to file," IRS Acting Commissioner Steven Miller wrote.
The AMT is a levy designed to ensure that high-income taxpayers pay a minimum tax. Democrats and Republican typically agree to adjust the tax for inflation to prevent unintended taxpayers from being hit by it.
This year, however, its fate is tied to heated negotiations - primarily between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner - over future taxes and federal spending as they try to avoid the automatic tax increases and spending cuts known as the fiscal cliff.
The AMT fix for calculating 2012 income tax has broad bipartisan support, but so far been drowned out by the larger federal budget questions.
Without action soon to fix the AMT, there could be "lengthy delays of tax refunds and unexpectedly higher taxes for many taxpayers," Miller said.
The IRS needs congressional authority to update tax-filing software and forms so that Americans can start their tax returns next year. Inaction by Congress on the AMT has left IRS unsure which taxpayers will need to pay the AMT tax.
An IRS spokesman declined to comment on the agency's AMT preparations to date.
"Failure to act on the fiscal cliff will throw the 2013 tax filing season into chaos," Representative Sander Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said in a statement.
About 4 million taxpayers pay the AMT now because Congress routinely "patches" it for inflation to keep it from reaching down into middle-income tax brackets.
Without a patch for 2012, up to 33 million taxpayers will have to pay the AMT, according to IRS.
Obama's most recent offer to Republicans included a permanent AMT patch.
House Republicans plan to vote Thursday on a bill to address the fiscal cliff that also includes an AMT patch.

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What's on the table now in 'fiscal cliff' talks

An update on the latest offers on the table in negotiations to avert a year-end avalanche of federal tax increases and spending cuts known as the "fiscal cliff":
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INCOME TAXES
House Speaker John Boehner would allow income tax rates to rise for people making more than $1 million per year and would hold rates where they are for everyone making less. The top rate on income exceeding $1 million would go from 35 percent to 39.6 percent.
President Barack Obama would freeze income tax rates for taxpayers making $400,000 or less and raise them for people making more.
The two sides are moving closer together. Previously, the Republican House leader opposed allowing any tax rates to go up; Obama wanted higher taxes for individual income above $200,000, or $250,000 for couples.
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PAYROLL TAX
Obama has dropped his proposal to extend a temporary cut in Social Security payroll taxes paid by 163 million workers. Republicans want that tax to go back up.
Raising the payroll tax by 2 percentage points to its old level would cost a worker making $50,000 a year another $1,000 — or a little more than $19 per week — during 2013.
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SOCIAL SECURITY
Obama is offering to reduce cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients. Republicans have been seeking this as a key to long-term deficit reduction. But many congressional Democrats oppose it.
Government pensions and veterans' benefits would also get smaller cost-of-living increases.
In addition, taxpayers, especially low- and middle-income families, would pay more because of changes in the way that tax brackets are adjusted for inflation.
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MEDICARE
Obama continues to reject Republicans' plan to raise the eligibility age for Medicare from 65 to 67. Boehner now says raising the eligibility age is not essential to a deal.
Obama wants to limit cuts in Medicare and other health care programs to about $400 billion over 10 years; Republicans want to overhaul Medicare to save even more money.
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DEBT LIMIT
Obama wants a deal that would raise the amount the government is allowed to borrow to cover the next two years, to avoid another debt showdown with Congress until after the 2014 midterm elections.
Previously, Obama had demanded permanent authority to increase the debt ceiling without congressional approval. Republicans want Congress to be part of the decision-making process so they can demand budget-cutting in exchange for additional borrowing.
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OTHER TAXES
Obama and Boehner both propose raising taxes on dividends and capital gains from 15 percent to 20 percent.
Both sides would reduce the number of deductions and exemptions that wealthy taxpayers can claim.
Obama would also let estate taxes revert to a 45 percent rate, after the first $3.5 million of an estate is exempted. Boehner backs a plan for a 35 percent rate and $5 million exemption.

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Swiss lender ZKB says three charged by U.S. authorities

(Reuters) - Swiss lender Zuercher Kantonalbank (ZKB) said two of its bankers and one former employee had been charged by U.S. authorities, which had accused them of helping U.S. clients avoid taxes.
The three were indicted over changes of conspiring with American clients to hide more than $420 million from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan had said on Wednesday.
The indictment did not identify the bank concerned but named Stephan Fellmann, Otto Hueppi and Christof Reist, who it said were all former client advisers for the unnamed institution.
None of the bankers had been arrested, authorities said.
Banking secrecy is enshrined in Swiss law and tradition but has recently come under pressure as the United States and other nations have moved aggressively to tighten tax law enforcement and demand more openness and cooperation.
U.S. authorities are investigating at least 11 banks, including Julius Baer , Credit Suisse and other Swiss regional banks, along with UK-based HSBC Holdings and Israel's Hapoalim, Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank Ltd and Bank Leumi .
In February, Wegelin & Co, Switzerland's oldest private bank, was indicted.
UBS AG , the largest Swiss bank, in 2009 paid a $780 million fine as part of a settlement with U.S. authorities who charged the bank helped thousands of wealthy Americans hide billions of dollars in assets in secret Swiss accounts.
ZKB said in a statement it was cooperating with U.S. authorities. The bank said it could give no details about the employees due to the ongoing investigation and did not confirm what they had been changed with.
ZKB bankers Fellmann and Reist could not be reached for comment. Hueppi declined to comment.

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Swiss lender ZKB says three charged by U.S. authorities

(Reuters) - Swiss lender Zuercher Kantonalbank (ZKB) said two of its bankers and one former employee had been charged by U.S. authorities, which had accused them of helping U.S. clients avoid taxes.
The three were indicted over changes of conspiring with American clients to hide more than $420 million from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan had said on Wednesday.
The indictment did not identify the bank concerned but named Stephan Fellmann, Otto Hueppi and Christof Reist, who it said were all former client advisers for the unnamed institution.
None of the bankers had been arrested, authorities said.
Banking secrecy is enshrined in Swiss law and tradition but has recently come under pressure as the United States and other nations have moved aggressively to tighten tax law enforcement and demand more openness and cooperation.
U.S. authorities are investigating at least 11 banks, including Julius Baer , Credit Suisse and other Swiss regional banks, along with UK-based HSBC Holdings and Israel's Hapoalim, Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank Ltd and Bank Leumi .
In February, Wegelin & Co, Switzerland's oldest private bank, was indicted.
UBS AG , the largest Swiss bank, in 2009 paid a $780 million fine as part of a settlement with U.S. authorities who charged the bank helped thousands of wealthy Americans hide billions of dollars in assets in secret Swiss accounts.
ZKB said in a statement it was cooperating with U.S. authorities. The bank said it could give no details about the employees due to the ongoing investigation and did not confirm what they had been changed with.
ZKB bankers Fellmann and Reist could not be reached for comment. Hueppi declined to comment.

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Swiss lender ZKB says three charged by U.S. authorities

(Reuters) - Swiss lender Zuercher Kantonalbank (ZKB) said two of its bankers and one former employee had been charged by U.S. authorities, which had accused them of helping U.S. clients avoid taxes.
The three were indicted over changes of conspiring with American clients to hide more than $420 million from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan had said on Wednesday.
The indictment did not identify the bank concerned but named Stephan Fellmann, Otto Hueppi and Christof Reist, who it said were all former client advisers for the unnamed institution.
None of the bankers had been arrested, authorities said.
Banking secrecy is enshrined in Swiss law and tradition but has recently come under pressure as the United States and other nations have moved aggressively to tighten tax law enforcement and demand more openness and cooperation.
U.S. authorities are investigating at least 11 banks, including Julius Baer , Credit Suisse and other Swiss regional banks, along with UK-based HSBC Holdings and Israel's Hapoalim, Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank Ltd and Bank Leumi .
In February, Wegelin & Co, Switzerland's oldest private bank, was indicted.
UBS AG , the largest Swiss bank, in 2009 paid a $780 million fine as part of a settlement with U.S. authorities who charged the bank helped thousands of wealthy Americans hide billions of dollars in assets in secret Swiss accounts.
ZKB said in a statement it was cooperating with U.S. authorities. The bank said it could give no details about the employees due to the ongoing investigation and did not confirm what they had been changed with.
ZKB bankers Fellmann and Reist could not be reached for comment. Hueppi declined to comment.

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The fiscal cliff: Calculate how much it will cost you

There's still no deal to prevent the double-whammy of harsh tax hikes and spending cuts kicking in on Jan. 1. Who will feel the most pain if we take the plunge?
After several days of apparent progress, negotiations on a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff stalled on Wednesday. House Speaker John Boehner, the lead negotiator for Republicans, is vowing to hold a vote on his own plan to raise taxes on people earning over $1 million a year, sparing most Americans from the loss of Bush-era tax hikes but leaving in place deep, potentially damaging automatic spending cuts due to hit at year's end. President Obama has threatened to veto Boehner's bill, known as Plan B, although it appears dead-on-arrival in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Obama said the GOP was refusing to strike a compromise due to a grudge against him, and he challenged Republicans to "peel off the war paint" and make a deal on a 10-year, $2 trillion deficit-cutting agreement to avoid the cliff. Each day without an agreement, though, increases the chance that the fiscal cliff will actually hit. Economists have warned that could trigger another recession. How would going over the cliff affect ordinary Americans? Here, a brief guide:
Would the fiscal cliff cause instant calamity?
Many people might panic right away if Jan. 1 arrives without a deal, but the real impact of the fiscal cliff will occur gradually as $600 billion in automatic tax hikes and spending cuts (mostly to defense and domestic spending programs) start kicking in. But the money won't be sucked immediately out of the economy. It will happen over the course of the year, although we'll all feel the pinch right away.
SEE MORE: America already drove over a fiscal cliff
Where will we notice?
The first place most people will feel the pain is when they receive their first 2013 pay stub. Without a deal, the temporary reduction in the Social Security deduction — from 6.2 percent of pay to 4.2 percent — that was part of the economic stimulus package, will expire. The payroll tax will return to normal, and that extra 2 percent (of income up to $82,000) will go into the Social Security system, instead of your pocket. That will add up to $1,640 per taxpayer over the course of the year.
What about income taxes?
There, too, everyone will notice, although not everyone will suffer equally. The temporary tax cuts that then-president George W. Bush signed into law in 2001 and 2003 are set to expire for people at all income levels on Jan. 1. For married couples filing jointly, the rate will jump from 10 percent to 15 percent on the first $17,800 of adjusted gross income, it will remain at 15 percent on income from $17,800 to $60,350, and it will rise from 15 percent to 28 percent on income from $60,350 to $72,300. The taxes on a family making $80,000 will rise from 25 percent to 28 percent. Also, the standard deduction for married couples will fall from $12,100 to $10,150, and the child tax credit will fall from a maximum of $1,000 per kid to $500.
SEE MORE: Could Obama sidestep a debt-ceiling showdown by minting $1 trillion coins?
How much will that cost the average person?
It depends on how much he or she makes. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates that if all of the scheduled tax increases are imposed, the average household will pay an extra $3,400 next year. The lowest fifth of households, with $11,239 in income, will pay an extra $412. The middle fifth, with an average income of $49,842, will pay $1,984 more. The second highest fifth (average income $80,080) will pay $3,540 more. The highest fifth (average income of $178,020) will pay an extra $14,173. The top 1 percent of taxpayers, those making $1.3 million on average, will see their tax bills rise by $120,537. That means that, in dollar terms, the super wealthy will pay the most, but those closer to the middle — say, couples making $80,000 — will lose the biggest chunk of their income.
So that's how much more we'll pay if there's no deal?
Not necessarily. Even if there's no deal to avoid every element of the fiscal cliff, there's a chance Congress will pass some form of a deal to ease the pain, at least for some of us. Boehner's bill would preserve the Bush-era tax cuts for almost everybody. Obama's proposal would keep those lower tax rates in effect for households making under $250,000 (which is still almost everybody). It's confusing, but there are plenty of online calculators available to help you estimate what you'll pay under all of the most likely scenarios (under Boehner's plan, under the Democrats' plan, if we simply go flying off the cliff). A single person earning $50,000, for example, would pay $10,313 in federal taxes (21 percent) if we went over the cliff, $9,753 under the GOP plan (20 percent tax rate), or $8,753 under Obama's plan (18 percent effective rate). Policy wonks say it's a good idea to take the calculators for a spin. "Some but not all of these tax hikes are still likely to go into effect as part of any deal to fix the nation's giant budget deficit," says Ian Salisbury at SmartMoney. "But just which ones is anybody's guess."

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Why more NFL teams should start rookie QBs

Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, and Russell Wilson are on the verge of making playoff history
If the NFL playoffs started today, a record three rookie quarterbacks would be leading their teams into the postseason. With two weeks left to play, Indianapolis' Andrew Luck, Washington's Robert Griffin III, and Seattle's Russell Wilson all have their teams roaring toward unexpected postseason berths.
This is no fluke. It's a reflection of the new approach teams have begun to take with their freshman play-callers.
Teams used to insist that rookie quarterbacks weren't ready to lead a team to victory. When the Cincinnati Bengals selected Carson Palmer with the first overall pick in the 2003 draft, they hailed him as their new franchise player. Yet the following season, Palmer never once left the sidelines. The Bengals benched their prized rookie for the entire year, thinking he would develop faster by first watching a veteran quarterback. This was hardly unusual. Teams had long believed that rookies should be nurtured and eased into the pros. If you threw them right into the deep end, went the conventional wisdom, they would surely sink.
Michael Vick, the first overall pick in 2001, started just two games his rookie year. Eli Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Phillip Rivers, and Aaron Rodgers — all highly-touted first round picks — began their careers as spectators, too.
In recent years, however, teams have been more adventurous with their new talent. In turn, more and more rookies have proven the old watch-and-learn system wrong.
Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh surprised everyone by naming rookie Joe Flacco his starting quarterback prior to the 2008 season. Flacco promptly led the Ravens to the AFC championship game, falling one win shy of the Super Bowl. That same year, fellow freshman QB Matt Ryan started every game for the Atlanta Falcons and took his team to the playoffs.
Mark Sanchez followed suit in 2009 with the New York Jets, driving his team to the AFC title game. And last year, Cincinnati's Andy Dalton and Houston's T.J Yates became the first rookie quarterbacks to face each other in a playoff game.
Since the AFL and NFL merged in 1970, just 11 freshman quarterbacks have started a playoff game; six have done so since 2004.
Even QBs whose teams failed to make the postseason have turned in sparkling rookie seasons in recent years. In 2010, Sam Bradford brought the St. Louis Rams, fresh off a one-win season, to the brink of the playoffs. And last year, number one pick Cam Newton obliterated a slew of rookie passing records.
In no season has this new phenomenon been more prominent than the current one. Five rookie quarterbacks started on opening day this year. Never before had more than two rookie quarterbacks done so.

This year's rookies aren't flailing away either. Leading the pack is Griffin, whose 104.2 passer rating — a composite measure of key passing statistics like completions, passing yards, and touchdowns — ranks second in the NFL behind only Rodgers, last year's league MVP. If Griffin keeps up the pace, he would destroy the record for the highest rookie passer rating ever. On top of that, his 6.7 rushing yards per attempt leads the league — not just among quarterbacks, but among all players.
By Total Quarterback Rating — a more nuanced version of passer rating created by ESPN — the big three rookie passers (Luck, Griffin, and Wilson) all rank in the top 11 league-wide. And even lesser-name rookies are enjoying relative success. Ryan Tannehill is turning in a respectable season for the struggling Miami Dolphins. And with Griffin out last week due to injury, rookie teammate Kirk Cousins picked up the win, throwing for 329 yards and two touchdowns.
Perhaps the driving factor behind this surge of rookie success is that college football has transformed in recent years to more closely resemble the pro game. College coaches have placed an increased emphasis on passing, and have adopted more and more NFL-style formations and plays — in some cases, college teams have even developed new tactics later appropriated their pro counterparts. As a result, college passers now enter the league with a built-in knowledge of the playing style, allowing them to more seamlessly transition between the two levels.

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Gun Violence -- Let's Shift the Odds in Favor of the Good Guys!

The unimaginable horror of Sandy Hook jumpstarts another "national conversation" about firearm violence. President Barack Obama, promising "meaningful action," said: "We will have to change. ... We can't tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end."
Let's examine four of the "commonsense" measures frequently proposed by "gun control advocates":
One, closing the "gun show loophole." What gun show loophole? Restricted from selling at guns shows prior to 1986, a licensed dealer today requires a background check whether he sells guns at a store, a gun show or the back of his SUV.
Two, banning "high-capacity" magazines. One of the firearms used by Adam Lanza was a Bushmaster .223, with a magazine that can carry as many as 30 rounds. Would there have been less carnage had he been limited to a firearm with low-capacity magazines? What is the appropriate amount of firepower? Clips with 10 rounds? Five rounds? If the idea is to reduce the lethality of the guns, what does this do to reduce the lethality of the shooter's intent?
The deadliest school massacre on American soil appears to have occurred in Chicago in 1958. A student set fire to the school, killing 92 students and three nuns. And in 1927, in Michigan, a former member of the school board set bombs at three schools, killing 45 (mostly second- to sixth-graders), including the bomber.
The Columbine tragedy could have been worse. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold set bombs throughout the school, but only one partially detonated, doing little damage. But had the bombs gone off as intended, hundreds could have been killed.
Three, reinstating the so-called "assault weapons" ban. An "assault rifle" is one where puling the trigger unleashes a volley of bullets, like a Tommy gun or AK-47. Since 1934, these firearms require licensing and registration. And in 1986, these weapons were banned from civilian sale. These laws remain in effect. The "assault weapons" ban did not restrict fully automatic weapons. Again, they were already under strict guidelines.
What exactly did this ban do? It outlawed certain weapons based on cosmetic features, many of which have nothing to do with the firepower or lethality. For example, the ban defined as an "assault weapon" a firearm with three or more of the following features: a folding or telescoping stock; a pistol grip; a bayonet mount; a flash suppressor; a muzzle capable of launching a grenade; and a magazine capacity over 10 rounds. It outlawed the manufacturing of 18 specific models of semi-automatic weapons.
The Bushmaster .223 was not one of the outlawed weapons.
The ban, enacted in 1994, expired 10 years later. What has been the result? Nothing. Crime was unaffected. The reason is simple. Assault-style rifles (the kind banned by the law) are rarely used in crime. Less than 1 percent of weapons used in crimes are fully automatic rifles (illegal to buy for nearly 30 years). An estimated 1 to 2 percent of firearms used in crime are assault-style rifles, like the one used in Newtown.
Four, requiring a mental health test to prevent the "mentally ill" from purchasing a firearm. The goal is to predict who will use a firearm in an unlawful way. But how to define mental illness? Is it depression? Abraham Lincoln supposedly suffered from depression or melancholia. Would the 16th president be denied the right to purchase a firearm? Do you forbid someone from purchasing a firearm if he or she is in therapy? Should a psychiatrist be required to inform the police when a client expresses anger, hatred or feelings of revenge?
Apart from the Second Amendment, how many other amendments to the Constitution will have been violated by denying someone the right to purchase a firearm because he is predicted to use the gun illegally — based on a psych test.
So what can be done?
We can harden the target to make it more likely that the shooter will encounter resistance. We can re-examine the soundness of "gun-free" zones like schools and malls. By law and policy, these are places where bad guys know there are no guns.
Rampage school shootings in Pearl, Miss., Edinboro, Pa., and in Grundy, Va., have been stopped or minimized by citizens with legal weapons. More recently, it appears that a concealed-carry weapon (CCW) holder minimized the damage that a shooter sought to inflict at the Clackamas Mall near Portland, Ore.
Nick Meli, who has a CCW permit and was armed, positioned himself near the mall shooter. Meli did not shoot, but feels he stopped what could have been greater carnage: "I'm not beating myself up 'cause I didn't shoot him. I know after he saw me, I think the last shot he fired was the one he used on himself."
Americans, according to criminologist Gary Kleck, use guns 2.5 million times each year for self-defense, usually just brandishing the weapon. (The attacker is wounded in less than 8 percent of self-defense cases.) Of the 2.5 million, 400,000 claim that but for their gun they would have been dead. If we're serious about "doing something," we might consider shifting the odds in favor of the good guys.

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Why are flags flown at half-staff in times of mourning?

Flying a flag at half-mast has become a well-recognized symbol of national grieving, but where did this tradition originate?

How did the tradition of flying the flag at half-staff get started?
It's tough to say, but the oldest commonly accepted reference to a half-staff flag dates back to 1612, when the captain of the British ship Heart's Ease died on a journey to Canada. When the ship returned to London, it was flying its flag at half-mast to honor the departed captain.
SEE ALSO: 5 gun-rights advocates who changed their minds after Sandy Hook
Why would these sailors lower their flag to honor their departed captain?
According to one line of scholarly thinking, by lowering the Union Jack, the sailors were making room for the invisible flag of Death. This explanation jibes with the British tradition of flying a "half-staff" flag exactly one flag's width lower than its normal position to underscore that Death's flag is flapping above it.
How long is the flag flown at half-staff in the United States?
It depends on whom the nation is mourning. Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 7 of the United States Code outlines strict guidelines for how long the flag is flown at half-staff following the deaths of various members of the government. The death of a current or former president lowers the flag for 30 days, while the current vice president, chief justice of the Supreme Court, and Speaker of the House receive 10 days of half-staff flying following their deaths. Flags fly at half-staff from the day of death until the date of interment for cabinet secretaries, associate justices of the Supreme Court, former vice presidents, and the governors of states. The death of a current member of Congress lowers the flag to half-staff on the day of death and following day.
SEE ALSO: Why are there so few female mass murderers?
Does the president have any leeway when he's making these orders?
Yes. The president can make an executive order lowering the flag to half-mast to honor the passing of other important figures or tragic events. For example, President George W. Bush ordered the flags flown at half-staff until the interment of Pope John Paul II. With national tragedies, the length of time seems to be a bit more arbitrary. Following the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush ordered the flag be flown at half-staff until September 16, 2001. The Indian Ocean earthquake and resulting tsunamis in 2004 prompted flags to be flown at half-staff from a Monday through the end of the following Friday.
What days is the flag always flown at half-staff?
The flag always flies on half-staff on Patriot Day (Sept. 11 of each year), Peace Officers Memorial Day (May 15), and Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (Dec. 7). On Memorial Day, the flag flies at half-staff until noon, at which point it is raised to the top of the staff.
SEE ALSO: Remembering Daniel Inouye: A quietly heroic life in politics
What if I can't fly my flag at half-staff?
Some flags, like the ones commonly seen in school classrooms or on houses, are fixed in a certain position on their poles. How does one handle the sticky situation of a flag that physically can't be flown at half-staff? The United States Code doesn't cover this conundrum, but the American Legion advocates adding a black ribbon to the top of the flag's pole to indicate mourning.
Can anyone other than the president order flags to be flown at half-staff?
Sure. Governors of states, territories, and possessions have the authority under the federal flag code to order a half-staffing, as does the mayor of Washington, D.C. It's not uncommon for a local mayor to order a half-staffing following the death of some prominent citizen, and occasionally businesses will half-staff their flags to honor the passing of a member of the company. Technically, these sorts of half-staffings aren't covered by the federal flag code. There's no penalty for breaking the federal flag code, though, so it's generally no big deal if a local leader wants to honor a prominent citizen in this way.
SEE ALSO: Big Brother's bird's-eye view
How does one raise a flag to half-staff?
Surprisingly, not just by raising it halfway up the flagpole. To properly fly a flag at half-staff in mourning, one quickly raises the flag to the peak of the pole before slowly lowering it back down to the half-staff position.

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The Newtown school massacre and America's gun obsession: By the numbers

The tragedy set off a surge in support for new gun control laws... and a buying frenzy in gun stores
In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, in which 20 children and six adults were killed, President Obama is vowing to make gun control a priority in his second term. He promised to set up a task force and send Congress proposals on new restrictions in January, setting in motion what could be a bitter debate with Republicans, who oppose new restrictions on sales of guns and ammunition. The prospect of new gun laws (in a country with 270 million privately owned firearms) delighted some, and sent others rushing to sporting goods stores to buy weapons in case future restrictions make them harder to get. Here, a look at how the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., has affected America's obsession with guns:
5
States in which Walmart stores have sold out of five types of semi-automatic rifles like the one police say Adam Lanza used in the Sandy Hook killings, according to a Bloomberg News search on the company's website. The states where the weapons are out of stock include Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Alabama.
SEE MORE: Ronald Reagan would demand more gun control
$30,000
Sales at Pullman Arms in Worcester, Mass., on the Monday after the Newtown killings, up from $2,000 on a typical Monday. Most of the guns people bought were assault rifles, or ARs, like the Bushmaster rifle police say Lanza, who killed himself at the school as police arrived, used. "People want ARs because people are afraid there will be a ban on assault weapons," says Pullman Arms co-owner Alicia Merritt.
4,154
Record number of background checks submitted for gun purchases in Colorado on Saturday, the day after the Newtown massacre. The previous one-day record in the state, 4,028, was set on Black Friday of this year.
SEE MORE: Why states should take the lead in reforming gun laws
2,383
Background check requests made in Nevada from Friday through Sunday, another record, according to the Nevada Department of Public Safety. The previous weekend record in the state (2,315) was set over Black Friday weekend, which is typically the annual peak.
114,000
Background checks requested in Nevada this year, as of Dec. 16
SEE MORE: Is the Second Amendment obsolete?
104,288
Background checks requested in Nevada as of the same date last year
154,873
Applications for would-be gun buyers submitted to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) on Black Friday this year, the most in a single day since the system's inception in 1998 and a 20 percent increase over the number submitted on Black Friday 2011
SEE MORE: What 'meaningful contributions' will the NRA offer after Sandy Hook?
2
Number of times the NICS shut down on Black Friday this year due to system overload. One shutdown lasted 18 minutes, the other 14 minutes.
16.4 million
Background checks run nationwide in 2011, according to the FBI
SEE MORE: The Connecticut school massacre: Read the NRA's first public comments
194,814
Signatures on a petition at Whitehouse.gov (as of early morning on Dec. 20) demanding the introduction of new gun-control legislation
8,000
New members the National Rifle Association, the nation's leading gun-rights advocacy group, says it has signed up daily since the Connecticut shootings
SEE MORE: The media should be ashamed of its Connecticut coverage
200
Percentage increase in prices on the eBay auction website for ammunition for Glock handguns (another type of weapon Lanza reportedly carried). The running bid for four Glock magazines rose to $118.37, compared to $45 on the day before the shooting. The bid in an auction for seven Glock magazines hit $201 on Dec. 17, up from $71.01 before the massacre.
200
Percentage increase in reported sales of armored backpacks for children since the Newtown shooting rampage. The backpacks, with bulletproof-plate inserts, cost up to $400. Kerry Clark, president of Texas-based Backpackshield.com, sold 15 of the backpacks on Wednesday. He first started making them following the Virginia Tech mass shooting in 2007, and in a typical month, he sometimes sells just one. "It's the busiest I've seen it in my life," he said.

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