Earlier reports claiming that Adam Lanza's primary weapons during the massacre were a pair of handguns has been refuted by Conn. Chief Medical Examiner Dr. H Wayne Carver, who said early today that the deaths can be attributed to the long rifle, which means it was the .223 Bushmaster. It's a very destructive weapon.

The weapons that use .223 caliber ammunition range from bolt-action rifles to the more "assault" type semi-automatic rifles. New Jersey and Connecticut both have strict gun laws in place banning their own definitions of "assault" rifles — and anything over a 10 round magazine — but a simple trip across the border into Pennsylvania can secure weapons illegal in both those aforementioned states, or one can just buy weapons on the web.

The .223 round is slightly lighter than the military grade version, but reacts the same on impact and is pretty much as deadly. It's designed to bounce around inside the body once it makes contact with bone.The AR-15 is the civilian version of the military's M16 and has been in production since Vietnam. The caliber is the same used in the DC sniper shootings. It was also used in the Colorado shooting.

It appears Lanza's mother, who he killed before his attack on Sandy Hook, was a gun enthusiast.

Nancy Lanza was an avid gun collector who once showed him a "really nice, high-end rifle" that she had purchased, said Dan Holmes, owner of a landscaping business who recently decorated her yard with Christmas garlands and lights. "She said she would often go target shooting with her kids. "Newtown was ranked the fifth safest city in America by the website NeighborhoodScout.com based on 2011 crime statistics.

Information is coming out very slowly. The police say they believe they have a motive to the shootings, but haven't shared them yet.

Authorities indicated today that they have "some very good evidence" about the motive behind Lanza's shooting spree at the school in Newtown, Conn.

... Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance, who had compared the investigation to "peeling back the layers of an onion," said the investigation "did produce some very good evidence" about motive, but he would not go into further detail.He indicated the evidence came from the shooting scene at the school as well as at the home where Lanza's mother, Nancy, was slain.

We're waiting to see if Lanza left behind an explanation of his "thinking," such as it was.

We've all seen George Bush's Seven Minutes of Silence in Michael Moore's blistering documentary Farenheit 911, and we've heard Bill Maher discuss it at length. Well, now we have a new political embarrassment to add to the lexicon of shame. This one is a shout-out to Mitch McConnell, who refused to answer a simple question about gun control after the massacre at Sandy Hook.

Dan Amira:

So, NRA-endorsed Joe Manchin is ready to talk about gun control. How about some actual Republicans? Are they ready to have that conversation? Apparently not, according to an encounter that CNN Radio reporter Lisa Desjardins had with Senate Minority Turtle Leader Mitch McConnell in the Senate hallway:

Desjardins: Is now a time to debate our gun laws in this country?

McConnell: [Makes a noise like a turtle clearing its throat, continues walking.]

Desjardins: No comment either way?

McConnell: [Walks in silence.]

Desjardins: A lot of our viewers say they'd like that debate. No comment?

McConnell: [Walks in silence.]

The end.

Yeah, I know. Cowardly.

But what can you expect? He wants his NRA money to keep pouring in.

The End.

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C&Lers know how I feel about Eric 'The Pompous' Bolling. He's the supposed FOX News business reporter who, if he took his own economic advice he peddles on TV, he'd be broke and living off the very food stamps he despises. The mere mention of gun control sent his lizard brain reeling.

Beckel: Frankly I’m getting a little bit saddened by people who say that those of us who believe in gun control, that now is not the time to talk about it. That’s generally a way for gun advocates to put off the subject until things cool down. Now is exactly the time to talk about it. There is now a question, should you have allowed a guy with an equivalent of an M-16, because that’s an assault weapon.

Diane Feinstein says Democrats are willing to do something on the first day of the new Congress. A ban on assault weapons. At a bare minimum we’ve got talk assault weapons and make them illegal in every possible way because those guns do not hunt animals, they hunt people.

Bolling: First of all, an assault weapon…le-le-le---let me do this. From the very early morning we had a meeting and I said I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to do this gun control discussion right now, there’s a day, place and a time for all that. We can do it. Ummm, let’s not be like Bloomberg, Piers Morgan, Bill Maher, Michael Moore and now Bob Beckel, and jump out while we’re burying our kids Jack Pinto…[garbled]..are being buried as we speak.

We’re talking about guns. This is ridiculous, we’re using politics, we’re using deaths of children to push our political agenda, we’re wrong, you’re wrong…You’re my good friend and you’re absolutely wrong.

Beckel: It’s, it’s…

Bolling: You’re my good friend and you’re absolutely wrong in this case.

Beckel: And you’re absolutely wrong…

Bolling: There is a time and a place and we will have that discussion. I refuse to participate TODAY.

Beckel: When will that time and place be, when the NRA thinks it’s a good idea to do it?

Bolling: When our children are buried, Bob...

It appears that during their pre-show meeting, the two of them had words over this. Bolling went over the top (as he usually does against all things left), but he was even nastier than usual. The Pompous One tries hard to be FOX's next Glenn Beck, but he just comes off nasty and reptilian. A slithering snake of vitriolic barbarism aimed at spreading more hate throughout the conservative universe against liberals.

Did Eric show the same wait-and-see character that he tried to exude over the Sandy Hook Shooting during the Benghazi consulate incident? Hmm, let's see.

Media Matters:

Fox News' Geraldo Rivera condemned his colleague Eric Bolling for pushing what Rivera called "an absolute misrepresentation" aimed at scoring "a political point" over the tragic September 11 attack on a U.S. Consulate in Libya.

Discussing what reports say were separate attacks on the compound in Benghazi, separated by hours, Bolling criticized the Obama administration for ignoring calls to send help after the initial attack, saying: "So Washington, the State Department, the CIA, does nothing, sends no help. "Rivera immediately took Bolling to task, calling him a "politician" who was "misleading the American people."

Outside of a handful of David Frum Republicans, I doubt you'd find any conservative pundit alive who is even-handed and mindful of his or her own actions.

(h/t Heather for the video)

I don't know if you remember this TV commercial that ran in 2010. It was repulsive. West Virgina Senator Joe Manchin is as pro-gun as a Senator can be. If the NRA had an A+++ rating -- especially for Democrats, who they rarely endorse -- he would get it, but a one hundred score is the best he could do. I don't know why he's a Democrat, either, after listening to what he stands for in that ad, but that being said, the shooting has loosened him up at least on magazine clips. Here's a little of what he said on Morning Joe.

“I just came with my family from deer hunting,” Manchin said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I’ve never had more than three shells in a clip. Sometimes you don’t get more than one shot anyway at a deer. It’s common sense. It’s time to move beyond rhetoric. We need to sit down and have a common-sense discussion and move in a reasonable way.”

“I don’t know anyone in the hunting or sporting arena that goes out with an assault rifle,” he said. “I don’t know anybody that needs 30 rounds in the clip to go hunting. I mean, these are things that need to be talked about.”

I don't really trust him, but the massacre at Sandy Hook is forcing some gun freaks (though not the terminally insane Louis Gohmert) to at least change some of their talking points.

Manchin also said more than gun control might be needed to prevent future mass shootings.

“This is bigger than just about the guns,” he said. “It’s about how we treat people with mental illness, how we intervene, how we give them the care they need, how we protect our schools.”

A conservative Democrat, Manchin famously used a rifle to shoot a piece of climate control legislation in a television ad. The National Rifle Association endorsed his reelection bid.

All 31 senators with an “A” rating from the NRA declined to appear on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” to discuss gun control, according to host David Gregory.

All those pro-gun Senators showed what cowards they are by refusing to appear on the Sunday morning talk shows to defend their lifelong positions and slavish backing of the NRA. Most NRA members actually are in favor of tighter gun controls, but then again, members don't receive huge amounts of money from the gun manufacturers NRA to support them.