Charles Krupa / AP

A woman carries a girl from their home as a SWAT team searching for a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings enters the building in Watertown, Mass., Friday, That was part of what turned out to be a chaotic week in the U.S.

By Bill Briggs and JoNel Aleccia, NBC News

Americans found their resilience pushed to the limit  this week – and they still don’t know what’s coming next.

When the Boston Police Department tweeted "CAPTURED!!!" Friday night, signaling the apprehension of the second suspect in the bombing blasts that devastated that city's famous marathon, their elation was echoed by people across the nation who clapped, cheered, pinged, Facebooked and tweeted their own relief that, finally, there was an end to the manhunt -- and a hellish span of days.

Even though that siege has passed, the impact of collective crisis fatigue may well linger, experts say.

The U.S. already had endured Monday’s deadly attack, Tuesday’s poison letters and the Wednesday Texas fertilizer plant explosion that has left a still-untold number of people dead, 60 missing and 200 injured. Thursday and Friday saw a late-night shootout and a day-long lockdown that resulted in the death of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and the capture of his 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar. 

“All in all, this has been a tough week,” said President Barack Obama, addressing the nation Friday night. “But we’ve seen the character of our country once more.”

Through its long history, America has weathered its share of the disturbing and the traumatic -- political assassinations, civil and international wars, school massacres, Pearl Harbor, the 9/11 attacks. But few in this generation can cite a single Monday-through-Friday series so jam-packed with frightful, breaking-news bulletins.

“For the first time in a long time, we’re really being challenged now on our home turf,"  said Marleen Wong, a professor and associate dean of the University of Southern California school of social work. She compared the condensed spate of sadness to the 1960s assassinations of President John Kennedy, his brother Robert, and Martin Luther King, though she admits those murders spanned five years.

Sure, it's a lot to take. But when do we hit our bad-news breaking point? 

"If there’s another IED in another city, then we’re really going to have a problem. That’s what concerns me. We might then be crossing some kind of new line," said Bart Rossi, a New Jersey psychologist and author of "The New-New American Life Style: Post September 11, 2001, A Psychologist’s Perspective." "We're talking about some heavy issues here." 

Already, he expects that many Americans are purposely avoiding crowds and staying home, fearful that another mass-casualty is looming. He estimates that in about one month, those same people will resume their normal routines — if all remains relatively quiet.

"If you put a number on our national anxiety it's a 6 or 7 or maybe trending toward an 8," Rossi said. "We’re so frustrated and angry. If something else happens, it might go up to a 9 or a 10, where we’re all just really overwhelmed and overwrought."

That’s true even though the actual risk of harm is very small, even for those who were confined in the immediate area of Watertown, Mass., where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was believed to be trapped for most of Friday.

“The risk is statistically infinitesimal,” said David Ropeik, a Harvard University instructor, author and consultant in risk communication. “And greater emotionally.”

Terrorism is effective precisely because of the emotions it evokes and the stress that triggers a flight-or-fight response that suppresses reason and makes people more instinctive, Ropeik said.

“What terrorism is, is random, violent madness that makes us all feel vulnerable,” he said. “The unpredictable, unpreventable, could-happen-to-anyone-anywhere-anytime, they-are-living-among-us crimes always scare us.”

And it's not like Americans have been dancing lately through a landscape of easy years. The nation has weathered two wars — one still active — and the nasty aftermath of those conflicts, a bad economy, and an adversarial political environment: not traumatic for most yet exhausting and grinding for many. Since last summer, we've mourned dozens lost in the Aurora theater massacre, Superstorm Sandy and the Newtown school slaughter.

"These are times that really reinforce our values and the things we hold dear: the ability to live in peace," Wong said. 

"But on the other hand, I hear messages not just from leaders but also from people, from athletic teams, from runners — from people who have expressed the idea that you can try to hurt Americans, but we’re not afraid, we’re going to respond, we’re going to keep going, we’re going to prevail.

"It really demonstrates the courage of Americans in a way that reminds me of Britain during World War II when the bombs were falling every day in London and their leader, Winston Churchill, stood up and described what the English spirit is all about," Wong said. In similar fashion, some have demonstrated heroic and defiant actions this week — like the Boston hockey crowd belting out the National Anthem on Wednesday night.

"I saw that. It was so wonderful. It made me cry," Wong said. "We will be together, and we’ll get through it."

Related stories:

• 'We got him!' Boston bombing suspect captured alive
• Massive Boston manhunt drags on; anxiety grips city
• Who are the Tsarnaev brothers?

Joe Raedle / Getty Images, file

As the U.S. Senate takes up gun legislation in Washington, DC , Mike Acevedo puts a weapon on display at the National Armory gun store on April 11, 2013 in Pompano Beach, Florida.

A Senate proposal to expand criminal background checks to people who buy firearms at gun shows and online would increase sales at traditional gun stores, many retailers agree — and perhaps even hand licensed dealers a “sweetheart” boon that amounts to “an Obama tax,” according to one industry leader.

The bipartisan plan to broaden background checks — fueled by anger from the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., as well as the gun-control push from the Obama Administration — would “bring a lot of money” to the bricks-and-mortar gun sellers, predicts Andrew Molchan, director of the National Association of Federally Licensed Firearms Dealers, which has about 1,000 members.

“It's kind of like a sweetheart union deal" that would be realized by gun store owners Molchan said. “Most FFL holders already charge for [private gun] transfers, and when it becomes a law they'll charge more." 

If instant criminal background investigations were to be federally mandated for all guns sold via the Internet or at gun shows, that task would fall to retailers. Some gun-store owners argue such a change would increase their workload and their legal risk, thus dampening the positive impact of having more firearms owners visit their establishments. But Molchan contends the tightened rules will ultimately deepen the revenue stream for licensed dealers.

“It's an ‘Obama Tax,’ with all of the money going to the FFL holders: gun stores, pawn shops, sporting goods stores, hardware stores,” he added. “The bottom line for the real world is that a year from now [if the law passes] there will be more gun stores.”

Other firearms sellers and industry analysts don’t envision gun-shop cash registers humming at quite the rapid pace that Molchan forecasts should Congress vote to pass the bill, but there seems to be consensus that profits at those locations will rise to some degree. 

'Treacherous direction'
An earlier plan pitched by the White House to require universal background checks — to cover all private firearms sales — would have generated an even larger payday for gun shops through far heavier foot traffic and even fatter bumps in side sales of ammunition and cleaning supplies, said Garen Wintemute, a firearms researcher and a professor at the University of California, Davis, where he also serves director of the Violence Prevention Research Program.

“The current [Senate] proposal falls well short of a comprehensive background-check policy [so] the benefit to retailers will be smaller than it otherwise will be,” Wintemute said.

Advocates for tougher gun laws have long contended that 30 to 40 percent of criminal firearm acquisitions are made from family and friends and, thus, done off the books, without background checks. However, many gun owners and sellers argue that number was plucked from 1990s research and that actual portion is probably closer to 10 to 13 percent. 

Gun shows typically include many tables occupied by licensed sellers (including retailers) who are required by law to conduct background checks even at those transitional venues. That means the proposed background-check extension would only affect “individuals who are selling their personal collections” at such events, and “that’s not a big factor,” said Larry Hyatt owner of Hyatt Gun Shop in Charlotte, N.C.

“One reason a lot of people want to buy a gun at a gun show from another individual is because they don’t want the government to know. They’re not buying because they are criminals or have criminal intent. They just want to be invisible,” Hyatt said. “That’s a huge issue in the country."

Broadening background checks to include gun shows and Internet transactions will have “a pretty small” impact on stores like Hyatt’s, he said. “There are still going to be people who wouldn’t buy from us anyway because they wouldn’t want a record [of the purchase]. It’s not anything evil. It’s brought about by some of this fear of government and fear of future gun laws. Because people see an inevitable descent [toward gun bans]. They see an overall treacherous direction.”

WSLS 10

Police vehicles outside the New River Valley Mall in Christiansburg, Va.

Two women were shot Friday at a Virginia mall that houses a community college, and police have the gunman in custody, authorities said.

AP

This photo provided by the Christiansburg Police Department shows shooting suspect Neil Allen MacInnis, of Christiansburg, Va..

One victim was airlifted to a hospital. The other was taken to the hospital by ambulance and was in stable condition, officials said.

Police identified Neil Allen MacInnis, 18, a student at the college, as a suspect in the shooting.

Students and workers were evacuated after gunshots rang out at the New River Valley Mall in Christiansburg, NBC station WSLS reported. Local schools were briefly locked down.

A 911 call came in at 1:55 p.m. and cops were on the scene within five minutes.

A witness told the Roanoke Times that a gunman walked into the lobby of the mall, near the New River Community College, and pointed it at a woman.

Students in a classroom heard what they thought was a door slamming before they realized it was gunshots. A teacher told them to run.

“I heard one gunshot, and I didn’t know what it was,” student Josh Brown told the paper. “I saw people running out.”

“I’ll be scared to come back to school,” he added, starting to cry. “What’s wrong with people? Who would do something like this?”

The identities of the victims and any other identifying information are not being released in order to protect their privacy.

This story was originally published on Fri Apr 12, 2013 3:21 PM EDT

Saddleback Valley Community Church via Reuters

Matthew Warren, the son of popular American evangelical pastor Rick Warren

Evangelical pastor Rick Warren said that his son, who killed himself last week after a prolonged battle with mental illness, bought an unregistered gun over the Internet.

“Someone on the internet sold Matthew an unregistered gun,” Warren said Thursday on Twitter. “I pray he seeks God’s forgiveness. I forgive him.”

The youngest son of the popular pastor and author, 27-year-old Matthew Warren committed suicide last Friday. Warren’s Saddleback Valley Community Church in Lake Forest, Calif., announced his death the next day.

“In spite of America’s best doctors, meds, counselors, and prayers for healing, the torture of mental illness never subsided,” Warren wrote in a letter to church members. “Today, after a fun evening together with Kay and me, in a momentary wave of despair at his home, he took his life.”

The Orange County sheriff’s department has struggled to determine where the gun came from, The Associated Press reported. It is practically impossible to trace, sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said.

“We can’t tell if it’s registered or not because the serial number is scratched off,” Amormino said. “At one point in time, it may have been, but it’s going to be impossible to find out.”

Background checks are required on all gun purchases in California, and defacing or altering a gun’s serial number is a federal crime.

The Orange County sheriff’s department was called to Matthew Warren’s home in Mission Viejo last Friday afternoon. They found him dead of an apparent suicide by gunshot, estimated to have been fired seven hours earlier.

The church called the pastor’s son “an incredibly kind, gentle and compassionate young man whose sweet spirit was encouragement and comfort to many” in a statement. “Unfortunately, he also suffered from mental illness resulting in deep depression and suicidal thoughts.”

Rick Warren delivered an invocation at President Barack Obama’s inauguration in January 2009, and is the bestselling author of “The Purpose Driven Life.” He has tweeted regularly about his son’s death.

Suicides accounted for 19,392 of the more than 31,000 gun-related deaths in 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Related:

• Pastor Rick Warren's son, Matthew, commits suicide, church says
• Rick Warren on updating 'Purpose Driven Life' for 2013
• Rick Warren: Pastor in the political spotlight

Joshua Lott / Getty Images

Mark Kelly leans his head on the shoulder of his wife and former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords as they attend a news conference asking Congress and the Senate to provide stricter gun control in the United States on March 6, 2013 in Tucson, Arizona.

For former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, gun violence is personal -- so she's going to begin her own in-person push for a new compromise to expand background checks for gun sales when she returns to Capitol Hill next week, NBC News has learned.

And the gun safety group she founded with husband, Mark Kelly, will begin making robocalls Thursday in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, looking to support the two senators who crafted the deal -- an attempt to demonstrate that the organization is committed to challenging the gun lobby's political infrastructure.

The National Rifle Association’s grassroots power is near-legendary, but in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., massacre, gun safety groups have tried to demonstrate that politicians should be worried about — and able to rely on help from — the other side, too.

"We are going to be there for the lawmakers who listen to the over 90 percent of Americans who support an expanded background check system. We recognize that up until now, the influence and power around this issue has been on the other side," said Pia Carusone, spokeswoman for Americans for Responsible Solutions. "Those days are over and we are going to be carefully watching the votes over the next few weeks."

The push from Giffords comes at a critical time for gun legislation in the Senate. The legislation cleared a critical hurdle Thursday as senators voted to open debate on a bill that would expand background checks, make gun trafficking a federal crime, and provide more funding for school safety.

But an important test comes with the vote on the background check compromise. Democratic leadership aides say they expect the tally on the background check amendment to reflect whether they'll win final passage of a gun bill.

Giffords, who was shot in the head as she met with constituents at a Tucson Safeway supermarket in January 2011, had already planned to be in Washington to dedicate a meeting room in the Capitol in honor of aide Gabe Zimmerman, who was killed in the shooting that wounded her.

She plans to ask for meetings with a number of Republicans — and Democrats — who the group believes might be open to supporting the background check compromise amendment to the gun legislation. Senators Pat Toomey and Joe Manchin announced their compromise proposal on Wednesday.

The new language still needs to be added to the bill, as its first amendment, and Democrats plan to try and vote to add it to the bill early next week.

Also next week, Kelly is set to give a speech at the University of Pennsylvania, where he'll praise Toomey's efforts.

In the meantime, the robocalls supportive of Toomey will target voters in suburban Philadelphia, a swing area where gun control is popular. In West Virginia, calls will go to white, male voters over 30, particularly those identified as veterans and gun owners.

"Hi, I'm Mark Kelly -- combat veteran, astronaut, and most importantly, husband to my brave wife Gabrielle Giffords. I'm calling to thank your senator, Joe Manchin, for working across party lines to sponsor critical legislation to protect the Second Amendment rights of West Virginians and to keep your families safe from gun violence," Kelly says in the West Virginia ad.

The calls urge recipients to contact Congress. Carusone said 185,000 robocalls are planned. The group will also email its grassroots supporters, which they say number 200,000.

Among the GOP senators who the Giffords group and other gun control advocates view as potential supporters: Jeff Flake of Arizona, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Dean Heller of Nevada, Susan Collins of Maine, and Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia.

There are, however, a number of Democrats who might oppose the bill: Sens. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mark Begich of Alaska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Max Baucus of Montana. Pryor and Begich voted "no" on the motion to open debate on guns.

Related:

Gun bill clears key Senate hurdle with bipartisan support

Newtown passion moves Senate vote on guns

W.V. State Police via Reuters

Tennis Melvin Maynard, 37, is seen in this undated handout photo released by the West Virginia State Police.

A man alleged to have shot and killed a West Virginia sheriff on April 3 should have been barred from owning a gun, but got his hands on a weapon after his background check was delayed by "kinks in the chain" a county prosecutor said.

Mingo County Sheriff Eugene Crum was sitting in his parked police SUV eating lunch when Tennis Melvin Maynard, 37, allegedly shot him twice using a .40 caliber Glock handgun, police have said.

"It was a federal and state violation for him to possess a firearm, and he possessed other firearms also," Mingo County Prosecuting Attorney C. Michael Sparks told NBC News. Sparks declined to say what on Maynard's record prohibited him from owning the gun with which he allegedly shot Crum.

"The dealer did what was legally required under the law," Sparks said. "The disqualifying event ... it was not in the federal database when the gun was purchased. There was a delay in the time period between the triggering event and the information being reported to the federal database."

A separate, subsequent attempt by Maynard to buy a firearm failed when the background check system flagged him, Sparks said.

Sparks said West Virginia has “one of the more sophisticated systems in America as far as reporting this type of information.”

Maynard fled from the alleged shooting, police said, but was stopped when his car crashed into a bridge. After raising his gun to a pursuing deputy, Maynard was shot. He was transported to a hospital and authorities have said he is recovering from his injuries. Maynard has been charged with murder and attempted murder.

Williamson Daily News via AP

This undated photo shows Mingo County Sheriff Eugene Crum. Crum was gunned down Wednesday, April 3, 2013.

Maynard had spent time in a mental institution and “the same problem was eating him again,” his father told The Associated Press. Federal law prohibits the sale of guns to people who have been adjudicated mentally defective or spent time in an institution.

“He would have probably shot anybody, the first one he come to, you know what I’m saying,” Maynard's dad, Melvin, said. “I know he was off, I know he should have been in a hospital.”

A funeral for Crum, 59, at Mingo Central High School on Sunday was attended by close to 400 law enforcement officers who remembered the sheriff for his efforts to combat Mingo County’s drug trade.

“We ask all the time where have all the heroes gone?” Mingo County Circuit Judge Michael Thornsbury said in a eulogy, according to the AP. “Let me tell you, sometimes we walk in their midst and we don’t know we got them. He was mine.”

Crum’s wife, Rosie, was appointed to fill her husband’s position as interim sheriff on April 4. The county’s first female sheriff, she was sworn in during a candlelight vigil honoring her husband.

The news that Maynard never should have been able to buy a gun came Wednesday as Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a Democrat, proposed a bipartisan deal with Sen. Patrick Toomey that would expand background checks and strengthen the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) by refusing some federal funds to stats that fail to submit full records. The NICS was established in 1993 by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.

Randy Snyder / AP

Members of the honor guard carry the body of the late Mingo County Sheriff Eugene Crum on Sunday, April 7, 2013, at the Mingo Central High School in Matewan, W.Va.

Related:

• Dad: W. Va. sheriff slaying suspect mentally 'off'
• West Virginia sheriff slain while eating lunch in car
• West Virginia sheriff shot dead, suspect wounded

A Tennessee high school student was shot and killed Thursday waiting for the bus to school.

The victim was Johnathan Johnson, 17. His brother told NBC affiliate WSMV in Nashville that he was a good student and basketball player who loved the Boston Celtics.

Police told WSMV that they were seeking a suspect, Eric L. Goodner, also 17. Witnesses told the station that the suspect waited for Johnson on some steps leading to a vacant lot, then walked up to him at the bus stop and shot him.

Both were enrolled at Pearl-Cohn High School in Nashville, but Goodner has not attended since mid-February, WSMV reported. The principal, Sonia Stewart, said that Johnson was friendly and had a bright future.

This story was originally published on Thu Apr 11, 2013 9:22 AM EDT

A Chicago shop owner who'd been robbed in the past grabbed a baseball bat and fought back when a pair of men came in intent on robbing the place.

Store surveillance cameras captured the bold brawl at Quizhpe's Gifts & Sports, in the Logan Square neighborhood, at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The robbers, one of them with a gun, apparently had no idea what they were in for when they walked into the shop.

"One of the guys, he said, 'Give me the money or you are dead,' and after that I was close to him and I tried to hit him with the bat, and the other guy he started shooting," said Luis Aucaquizhpi.

Aucaquizhpi's brother-in-law, 62-year-old Luis Quizphe, fended off the gunman with a baseball bat for a moment before the shooter tried to run away. Little did the robber know, however, that customers need to be buzzed in and out of the store. Seeing that they couldn't get out, one of the attackers returned to the counter and continued shooting.

Aucaquizhpi is seen in the video tossing a stool at the gunman and later chasing him with a fire extinguisher after the two robbers buzzed themselves out of the shop.

Quizphe was shot in the leg during the ordeal and was listed in good condition at Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital on Wednesday evening. The man with the gun appears to also have shot his accomplice. Police said they found 10 shell casings on the floor.

Quizphe's son credited God for being on his dad's side.

"I thank God that nothing worse happened to him, that he's alive. I'm grateful for that," said Juan Quizphe.

Police said no arrests had been made in the case as of Wednesday afternoon. After getting away, the men, whom Aucaquizhpi described only as being black men, ran north on Western Avenue and then west on Belden Avenue before getting into a gray car.

The chief executive of a Tennessee firearms instruction school, who said in an online video that he was “going to start killing people” if gun control laws were tightened, could get his carry permit back.

A judge in Benton County ruled on April 3 that the suspension of James Yeager’s handgun carry permit was not supported by the evidence against him.

Yeager lost his handgun carry permit on Jan. 10 after posting a video on Youtube in which he threatened violent action if President Obama pursued executive actions that would tighten restrictions on gun ownership. His original video was later replaced with an edited version that omits the remarks about “killing people.”

“I need all you patriots to start thinking about what you’re going to do, load your damn mags, make sure your rifle’s clean, pack a backpack with some food in it, and get ready to fight,” Yeager said in the original Jan. 9 video, now archived on the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center. “If it goes one inch further, I’m going to start killing people.”

A more sedate Yeager, seated alongside his attorney, tempered his statements in a video posted days later, on Jan. 11.

“I do not in any way advocate the overthrowing of the United States government,” Yeager said. “I was very angry when I made that video.”

Yeager filed a petition to have his handgun permit returned on Feb. 1.

There are 412,465 handgun permit holders in Tennessee, according to the state department of safety. A total of 1,389 permits were suspended or revoked in 2012.

The state attorney general has 10 days to appeal the Benton County court’s ruling. No decision to appeal had been made on Tuesday.

Based in Camden, Tenn., Yeager’s company, Tactical Response, offers courses in pistol, rifle, and shotgun shooting, including a two-day handgun course taught by him.

Some of Yeager’s own qualifications as a gun instructor have come into question since his Youtube video. The man, who has appeared on the Discovery Channel show “One Man Army” and National Geographic’s “Snipers, Inc.,” claims in his biography on his personal website Yeager’s Corner that he is a “TN Department of Safety Certified Firearms Instructor,” among other credentials including “knife defense instructor” and “chemical weapons instructor.”

But Yeager is not a certified as a firearms instructor by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, Communications Director Jennifer Donnals said in an email. “Also, Tactical Response is not a certified school for this department,” Donnals said.

“What is listed on my website is my training history, and it is a catalog of all the certifications and qualifications I’ve had at one point in time,” Yeager told NBC News on Tuesday. “I am not currently certified by the state of Tennessee to teach carry permit classes, but I have been in the past.”

Yeager’s website also details years working in law enforcement and as a private security contractor. He worked as chief of police in the town of Big Sandy, Tenn., from 1998 to 2000, and a deputy at the Benton County sheriff’s office from 2000 to 2002, according to the site. He also served with a private security detail in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 with Edinburgh Risk and Security Management.

Yeager lost the position of police chief in Big Sandy after a new mayor was elected, said city recorder Debbie Wright, who described Yeager as “very ambitious” for the town with a population of 539.

“He did a very extensive volunteer program, a ride-along type program, and a few people had problems with that,” Wright said.

When a new mayor came in, Yeager was out, according to Wright.

“They had different ideas about how the police department should be run,” Wright said.

Yeager ran for Benton County sheriff in 2006 against Tony King, who still holds office in the county with 16,500 people.

King said he received an email from the Department of Homeland Security informing him that Yeager’s permit had been revoked. Yeager’s video “probably drew more attention than he thought it would,” King said. “I think probably he let his temper get carried away with him.”

Yeager has backed off his initial statements, saying he is not planning on shooting anyone in a January interview – but he has also made it clear that he thinks that violence would be appropriate to protect certain 2nd Amendment rights.

“It will be time to shoot people when the Constitution is set on fire,” Yeager told local NBC affiliate WSMV in January. “If somebody comes to take my guns, I will shoot them.”

Charles Krupa / AP

Paul Regish of East Hartford, Conn., holds signs as gun rights advocates enter the legislative office building at the Capitol in Hartford, Conn., on April 3.

Connecticut lawmakers passed a bipartisan package of gun laws that will expand the state’s existing assault weapons ban, impose limits on the size of magazines, and require universal background checks in the state scarred by one of the worst school shootings in American history.

The state's House voted 105-44 in favor of the bill early Thursday. Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has said that he will sign the legislation into law.

State Sen. John McKinney, a Republican who represents the district where the Sandy Hook Elementary school massacre took place, said the bill was far from perfect but a necessary step to ensure the safety of the citizens of the state. 

Moments before the state's Senate bill passed by a vote of 26-10 on Wednesday, McKinney praised the state legislature for coming together in a bispartisan way, a model, he said, for the rest of the country.

"The message we can send if those outside the walls of Connecticut are listening is encourage them to do the same, encourage our elected officials in Washington to put aside the politics and see if they can find some common ground," he said.

Senate President Pro Tempore Donald Williams, a Democrat, opened the debate with a remembrance of the victims of the Dec. 14 Sandy Hook shooting.

“All at once there was a report that as many as 20 children had been killed,” Williams said. “For a few seconds it was hard to breathe. I looked around at my colleagues as we recoiled at the horror of what we were learning.”

Adam Lanza fired off 154 bullets in less than five minutes after entering the school in Newtown with a Bushmaster .223 rifle and several 30-round magazines, investigators have said.

Legislators in Connecticut worked to achieve a bipartisan consensus on the gun-control package. Sen. Majority Leader Martin Looney, a Democrat, told NBC News in March that he hoped for a “broadly supported bipartisan bill,” but said it was “more important that we have a strong bill that meets the need.”

The package put together in Connecticut should serve as an example for national lawmakers, Williams said on Monday.

“There were some who said the ‘Connecticut effect’ would wear off – that it would wear off in Connecticut and it would wear off across the country,” Williams said. “What they didn’t know was that Democrats and Republicans would come together and work to put together the strongest and most comprehensive bill in the United States to fight gun violence, to strengthen the security at our schools, and to provide the mental health services that are necessary.”

Malloy called the package “the toughest law passed anywhere in the country.”

Supporters of stricter gun controls applauded the bill even before it went to a vote.

“I am grateful that the Governor and Connecticut Legislature took a bipartisan path to a strong gun responsibility bill,” Nicole Hockley, whose son Dylan was killed in the Newtown shooting, said in a statement. “I particularly appreciate that the Legislature listened to us and strengthened the provision on large capacity magazine size. “

Sandy Hook Promise thanked the governor and legislators for “passing the strongest gun responsibility legislation in the nation.”

Dozens of protesters who oppose new gun laws were gathered at the Capitol building in Hartford on Wednesday.

“I’m prepared to contribute maybe to a class-action lawsuit, follow this up through the legal system,” gun owner Joe Winslow told NBC Connecticut.

“I want legislators to pass laws that will protect people while not violating the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens,” said Joel Klusek, another anti-gun control protester.

A post on the blog of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, a group that opposes gun control, said that buses would transport protesters from the parking lot of a Cabela’s sporting goods store in East Hartford to the Capitol and back on Wednesday.

“Please help us fill buses to the Capitol in Hartford as we assemble in the gallery above the floor where critical votes will take place,” the post read. “This is a last stand to show our legislators that we will not go away and accept the proposal as our fate.”

“CCDL wishes to thank the NRA for running these buses throughout the day!” the post said.

The state Senate passed the bill just moments after President Barack Obama finished a rally in Denver where he continued his push for Congress to pass a bill requiring background checks for every gun owner.

Next week, the president will travel to Hartford to continue his call for stricter gun control laws as the Senate prepares to take up the bill.

Related:

• Connecticut lawmakers reach deal on 'most comprehensive' gun limits in US
• Investigators: Adam Lanza surrounded by weapons at home; attack took less than 5 minutes
• 'Insane' crowds as customers flood Connecticut gun stores before vote

This story was originally published on Wed Apr 3, 2013 2:36 PM EDT

Western Connecticut State University

Undated student ID photo of Adam Lanza from Western Connecticut State University.

A new photo of Sandy Hook massacre gunman Adam Lanza has emerged: a college ID snapshot that shows him staring wide-eyed into the camera as though scared out of his wits.

The picture, one of just a few that have been made public since the Dec. 14 shooting at a Connecticut elementary school, was part of Lanza's records from Western Connecticut State University, where he took classes in 2008 and 2009.

There is nothing in the documents that would foreshadow the monstrous attack, just a few odd notes.

When he took a placement exam in May 2008, Lanza refused to answer some background questions — including his gender.

Asked whether he had a "documented disabling condition" that could impact his test scores, he said no — although his mother had told people he had Asperger's disease, which is low on the autism spectrum.

Lanza was just 16 at the time, but he scored high on the test — in the 90th percentile. The records also show he registered for a precalculus class, but it's unclear if he ever took it.

He did take three computer science courses, earning an A and an A-minus in two of them, and American history, where he received an A-minus.

He got a C in a a class called "Introduction to Ethical Theory."

No grade was entered for "Introduction to German," and that prompted a post-massacre email on Dec. 17 from the registrar to the German professor, asking for her to submit one. The response was macabre.

"Do you realize that this Lanza Adam is the young man who was from Newtown and shot himself and so many others?" the teacher replied. "I do not think he still needs a grade."

Lanza withdrew from classes at Western Connecticut, and he was not enrolled in any school when he went on his rampage at Sandy Hook, killing 20 children, six staffers and himself after murdering his mother in her bed.

Search warrants released last week revealed that Lanza had an arsenal of guns, knives, samurai swords and ammunition at his disposal.

NBC News producer Tom Winter contributed to this report.

A Georgia town has passed a law requiring its citizens to own a gun and ammunition — a measure one councilman says is similar to putting a security sign in your front yard to deter criminals.

The ordinance in the town of Nelson, population 1,300, contains no penalties, has exemptions for felons and the mentally ill and allows anyone to opt out. Town leaders said they wanted to make a point about gun rights.

The law requires the head of every household to own a gun and ammo to “provide for the emergency management of the city” and “provide for and protect the safety, security and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants.”

The law is also meant to pre-empt any future attempt by the federal government to confiscate guns, according to the council’s agenda.

“Some people have security systems, some people don’t, but they put those signs up,” Councilman Duane Cronic said. “I really felt like this ordinance was a security sign for our city.”

Johnny Clark / AP

In a this image made from video, the Nelson, Ga., council meets Monday to vote on a mandatory gun ownership ordinance for all heads of household.

The ordinance passed 5-0 on Monday night and takes effect in 10 days. Nelson is about 50 miles north of Atlanta.

Heath Mitchell, the only police officer in town, said that Nelson is far from the two nearest sheriff’s offices, and that having a gun would help people protect themselves.

Lamar Kellett, who lives in Nelson and spoke against the law at a hearing Monday, said the town would never pass a speed limit and allow people to flout it. He said the ordinance was pointless.

“People who want a gun, they already have one probably,” he told WXIA, the NBC affiliate in Atlanta. “There’s been no violent crime in Nelson in the past 10 years. So how are you going to improve on no violent crime?”

The measure is modeled after a law adopted in 1982 by Kennesaw, another Atlanta suburb. Police there acknowledge that they haven’t tried to enforce it.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Tue Apr 2, 2013 9:01 AM EDT