justice correspondent pete williams standing by for us now. pete, a parent was found shot at home, am i understand to the accounts not correct? >> i believe that's the best assessment that we have at this point. that was the initial word that we'd gotten from a couple of law enforcement officials but it is not unusual in a situation with information coming in so fast there are these miscues and that's apparently one of them. the best information we have is as you just said that the gunman entered the school before 9:30 this morning, went first to the principal's office. fired a number of shots there and then went to the classroom taught by his mother and focused the brunt of his firepower there with apparently devastating effect, with 18 children killed. eight adults. potentially nine if you count him. adults killed so it's either 26 or 27 fatal shooting victims, the worst school shooting in recent u.s. history. the other question is whether it was just one person or two. the best information as of this hour is that it's just one. there was a s

we heard from our justice correspondent pete williams a short time ago. what we know about the gunmen, according to pete, is that he is 20 years old. there have been some other reports indicating that he did have a relationship to a child in the school, that he may have been the father of one of the students, but, again, at this point we don't know a great deal about the gunman other than the fact that he is dead, so, again, as we continue to await -- again, i have just been told during the course of our conversation here that the death toll is now gone from 24 to 26 now. 26 dead, 18 children, eight adults. as you indicated, andrea, those numbers we expect to change. i'll send it back to you right now. >> pete is reporting now. pete williams is reporting that according to federal officials the total number of dead now are 26. obviously fast-moving events as we await for law enforcement, we've been told by jay carney that the president was notified in the oval office at 10:30 this morning by jon brennan, his homeland security advisor of the evolving situati

nbc's pete williams is in washington. pete with a good day, what have you learned? >> reporter: alex, the connecticut authorities have not yet formally identified the gunman, but we're been told and i think it's widely known it's adam lanza is his name, 20 years old who was living with his mother. they say the shooting actually began that morning about three miles from the school at the home where he was living with his mother, that he shot her then drove her car to the school. now we're told that he had actually four handguns when he entered the school. we had known about the first two. they say there were two others that were found. and then he also had a rifle that was not brought into the school we're told by several officials, that it was left in the car, and that all these weapons were legally purchased by his parents. although officials say on tuesday of this past week adam lanza went to a sporting goods store in connecticut and tried to buy a rifle but was turned down for various reasons, because of the connecticut firearm restrictions laws. now the other th

as we continue here live in washington, i'm joined by pete williams and our nbc newsroom. te, you've been hearing from federal and local officials, state official

pete williams, thank you very much. we appreciate it. >> you bet. >> up next, more on the tragedy here in connecticut. jenny wilson from the hartfo"ha courant" will join me. d. neural speeds increasing to 4g lte. brain upgrading to a quad-core processor. predictive intelligence with google now complete. introducing droid dna by htc. it's not an upgrade to your phone. it's an upgrade to yourself. i knew it'd be tough on our retirement savings, especially in this economy. but with three kids, being home more really helped. man: so we went to fidelity. we talked about where we were and what we could do. we changed our plan and did something about our economy. now we know where to go for help if things change again. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get free one-on-one help from america's retirement leader. >>> welcome back. we are continuing msnbc's coverage of the elementary school shooting in newtown, connecticut. we just got confirmation from senior white house officials that the president

for more on the investigation, i want to bring an nbc justice correspondent pete williams. evening. >> al, good evening to you. the bare details are starting to emerge here now. the authorities tell us that the gunman in this school shooting is a 20-year-old who lived in newtown, connecticut. adam lanza who lived with his mother who was a teacher at the school. and, as best authorities are able to piece together what happened, this is the picture that is emerging. that early this morning he shot his mother at the home where the two of them lived together. then got in her car with guns that she had legally purchased, that were registered to her, drove in her car to the school, entered the school at about 9:30. started shoot first in the principal's area. and then as authorities have said, in two classrooms, including, we believe, one of the classrooms where his mother taught, which was predominantly young people. kindergarten age. after shooting them, he then turned the gun on himself. now, there was some confusion earlier today about the identity of the person who had commi

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >> what is open today if you need to get out of the house? and an epic fail on one of the biggest movie batching weeks of the year. your first look at this morning's business head lies lines is straight ahead. >> and which new flicks are hitting the screen. are you watching "first look." because your daughter really wants that pink castle thing. and you really don't want to pay more than you have to. only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price. and if it finds one, you get refunded the difference. just use your citi card and register your purchase online. have a super sparkly day! ok. [ male announcer ] now all you need is a magic carriage. citi price rewind. start saving at citi.com/pricerewind. i just finished a bowl of your new light chicken pot pie soup and it's so rich and creamy... is it really 100 calories? let me put you on webcan... ...lean roasted chicken... and a creamy broth mmm i can still see you. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. >>> happy holidays. welcome back to "first look." som

>> pete williams on the latest known about this case. te, thank you for that. >>> they weren't given much time to leave their mark on the world before they were taken away, but today we learn more about the very young lives lost in this tragedy. nbc's kate snow has their stories tonight from newtown. >> we gather here in memory of 20 beautiful children. and six remarkable adults. >> reporter: the president named every single child lost. >> charlotte -- >> reporter: 6-year-old charlotte bacon loved being a daisy scout. her uncle told a newspaper charlotte's mom led the troop of ten girls. only five are still alive. >> daniel. olivia. >> reporter: daniel barden, olivia engel. her cousin and god mother told us olivia's 3-year-old little brother keeps asking for her. >> he's asking for via. where is via? when is via coming home? >> reporter: josephine gay, just celebrated her 7th birthday last tuesday. ♪ >>> this song, anna grace, was composed for anna marquez greene by her father jimmy a jazz saxophonist. anna was singing, he said, before sh

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >> what is open today if you need to get out of the house? and an epic fail on one of the biggest movie watching weeks of the year. your first look at this morning's business headlines is straight ahead. plus a look at which new flicks are hitting the big screen. you are watching "first look" on msnbc. >>> happy holidays. welcome back to "first look." some stories making news this morning and some sad news to report to you. charles durning who was often called the king of character actors has died in new york at the age of 89. durning was nominated for an oscar for his over the top performance as a corrupt governor in the 1982 it's the best little whorl house in texas." a year later he got a nomination for "to be or not to be." jack klugman died monday afternoon in los angeles at the age of 90. clug man starred as a medical examiner in the tv series quincy," but he is perhaps best known for his role as felix unger's sloppy roommate oscar madison in the tv version of the who had couple". at the vatican, the pope led his midnight mass at 10:00

as pete williams reports, the gun lobby has other ideas. >> reporter: in camden, new jersey, a record-breaking 1,100 guns turned into the police buyback after the newtown shooting. some saying they wanted the guns out of the house. >> it won't be easy, but that can't be an excuse not to try. >> reporter: among possibilities, banning military-style guns called assault weapons and high capacity gun clips or magazines. stopping private gun sales without background checks. the gun show loophole. confirming a permanent director for atf, the nation's gun law enfonser, making it easier to get access to mental health care and changing a culture that glorifies gun violence. democrats are pushing to bring back the assault weapons ban that ran from 1994 to 2004. they want to ban guns like the bush master xm-15, the type fired in the newtown shooting. some studies say the number of mass shootings has stayed about the same over the past three decades, an average of 20 a year, even with the previous ban in place. >> overall, assault weapon ban is a good idea. it will take a bite out of crime, ordinary crime

pete williams has more on the investigation. >> reporter: the police who found nancy lanza, adam lanza's mother shot to death in bed also found his computer. they say its internal hard drive had been removed and severely damaged. attempts to get information from it, law enforcement officials say, have so far not been successful. experts say though it can be difficult, it's not always impossible. >> i seen people try to damage a hard drive with a sledgehammer, screwdriver, throw it in the river, in most of those cases the forensic experts have been able to recover some data. >> reporter: as for the guns used in the shooting, officials say nancy lanza legally bought them in the past few years. atf agents verified she and her son adam visited shooting ranges. her friends say so, too. >> she had done this for adam partly to teach him responsibility and to get him out and interacting with people. he took great pride in the fact that he knew how to be safe with the guns and was very responsible with them. >> reporter: police say adam ha lanza was carrying hundreds of rounds of ammunition when

he was not let in, he forced his way in. >> nbc's pete williams from d.c. pete, thank you, sir. always appreciate it. >> you bet. >> as we are learning more new details about the suspected gunman. 20-year-old adam lanza. one person that knew him in high school says he was brilliant. but he was also socially awkward. and remote. law enforcement officials say we heard him that he had some sort of personality disorder, perhaps autism. joined now by criminologist james fox who is an msnbc analyst. mr. fox, gals to have you. learning new details here about lanza. based on what you -- based on what you read so far about the gunman, what's your sense of the picture that is starting to shape up? >> well, there's lots of characteristics here very common with mass murderers. particularly the social isolation. they are individuals that don't have lots of close friends nearby to help them put reality check in what they are thinking and what they are feeling. they don't have -- don't have a support system. when they get to the point where they are angry enough to kill and angry enough to tak

justice correspondent pete williams joins me. they took both of these cases, what is the significance from your analysis? >> well, it's the prop 8 case, andrea, that could be the biggy. it could be very narrow. the doma case has a very straight forward question. is it constitutional for a federal law to say that the government will not recognize marriages even when they're legal in the states, so that if married couples get married in the nine states where it's now legal, the federal government doesn't recognize those marriages. there's a question about whether that's unconstitutional discrimination, but if the supreme court does strike down doma, it doesn't say anything about whether the states must permit same-sex marriage, it only says if they do, the federal government must recognize them. so it's the proposition 8 case from california that potentially raises the bigger question. now, as it comes to the supreme court, it comes in a very narrow way. the court of appeals, which agreed with the trial court, that proposition 8 st

. >> pete williams is nbc's justice correspondent. , after the news conference on friday, we have that interview from wane la pierre sitting down with david gregory over the weekend. the interview really came as no surprise after what we witnessed on friday. >> it believes there are many -- sfwlo did he say, thomas, they want to encourage schools to -- the nra is willing to help train people, whether it's policemen or volunteers, whatever local school districts want to do -- >> it's gnting to satisfy the gun restrictions in the next senate. >> asa hutchinson, is now helming a model shield program that the nra is sponsoring to look into. how quick of a timeline or what is the timeline for the work that they're doing? >> well, it's going to depend on the amount of money that local school districts can spend to hire these people. what the nra says is we've been training people in firearm safety for years. we are willing to help train armed security people if the school districts can come up with the money. they've trained about 10,000 of

more from pete williams. new details on the gunman. the latest from pete, next.apella university understands businesses are trying to come back from rough economic times. employees are being forced to do more with less. and the need for capable leaders is greater than ever. when you see these problems do you take a step back, or do you want to dive right in? with a degree in business from capella university, you'll have the knowledge to go further in your career than you ever thought possible. let's get started at capella.edu for thos...this...ions of doing this... ...and this, dancing in their heads... ...we have these. home depot gift cards. give the gift of doing, in-store or online. until i had the shingles. i have never encountered such a burning sensation... it was like a red rash. like somebody had set a bag of hot charcoal on my neck. i had no idea it came from chickenpox. it's something you never want to encounter. for more of the inside story, visit shinglesinfo.com >>> we will leave no stone unturned as we look at every gas set of this investigation. w

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> up next, when parents can't let go. the extreme measures taken by one young woman to help keep her folks away. okay, here's the plan. you have a plan? first we're gonna check our bags for free, thanks to our explorer card. then, the united club. my mother was so wrong about you. next, we get priority boarding on our flight i booked with miles. all because of the card. and me. okay, what's the plan? plan? mm-hmm. we're on vacation. there is no plan. really? [ male announcer ] the united mileageplus explorer card. the mileage card with special perks on united. get it and you're in. get coricidin hbp. the number one pharmacist recommended cold brand designed for people with high blood pressure. and the only one i use to relieve my cold symptoms without raising my blood pressure. coricidin hbp. but that doesn't happen much anymore. the creative process never stops. and songwriting is so hard, but i love it. these days, i guess i just don't want to miss a thing. [ laughs ] i miss you guys. that's me. and this is my windows p

pete williams live in washington. pete, with a good morning to you, let's get all the details on these cases from you. fill us in. >> this is a very big deal, alex. the supreme court has never before in its history agreed to take a serious look at the issue of same-sex marriages and now it's going to be doing that the justices will look at two questions. first, can the federal government refuse to recognize these marriages in the states where they are already legal and secondly, what's to come of them in california. >>> just a day after washington state become the latest allowing gay couples to get married, the supreme court said it will delve into one of the nation's most hotly debated issues. >> the highest court in the land has decided to take up what will be one of the biggest civil rights cases that this court could ever hear. >> the court agreed to take up the legal battle over california's proposition 8 passed by voters four years ago ending same-sex marriage in the state. a federal appeals court ruled the ban

where we want to start this special hour this morning here with our justice correspondent, nbc's pete williamson what more we are learning about this investigation, and, pete, do we know more about why it happened? >> no, i don't think we do, and i think, of course, i don't think we can ever get a satisfactory answer. there is no satisfactory answer to this, such a monstrous act. there's some hope that the evidence in the house where he was killed, where he killed his mother, we believe, will help illuminate what was in his mind. he had a computer there, and they are analyzing that to see what they can get out of it. >> what can you tell us now about a lot of conflicting information about what happened and the scenario? >> the scenario starts friday morning when he takes his mother's gun, purchased them legally. this is a woman who grew up in rule new hampshire, comfortable with guns, liked them. killed her and takes three of the guns to the school. drives there in her car. forces his way in apparently by shattering a window. they had a buzzer system and so he defeated that by forcing his way

we want to start with nbc correspondent pete williams about what we are learning about the investigationdo we know more about why it happened? >> i don't think we can ever get a satisfactory answer, there is no satisfactory answer to such a heinous act. there's some evidence at his mother's house, they have a commuter there and they're analyzing that to see what they can get out of it. >> what was the scenario? >> the scenario, it all starts friday morning when he takes his mother's gun, she had purchased them legally, this is a woman who grew up in rural new hampshire, was comfortable can guns, liked them. he kills her, takes three of those guns to the school, in her car, forces his way in by shattering the window. they had a buzzer system and he forced his way in. the principal tried to stop him and he concentrated his firepower on these two classrooms with devastating effect. the detail that was so shocking is that he used an assault style weapon, a bushmaster .223, the same weapon that the washington snipers used ten years ago and shot these children several times, sometimes as much

. >> let's bring in justice correspondent pete williams. pete, the nra not budging on its message from the press briefing that it gave on friday to the appearance on "meet the press" yesterday. their point is that the best issue for the gun control problem is not more regulation, but to have armed officers, trained armed people manning our schools. if past is prologue, where is the nra's next move going forward? >> well, you know, i think that's a good question because past may not be prologue here. the past was that the obama administration saw absolutely no chance of getting this flew congress. president obama when he campaigned for his first term, said he would like to look at reveezing the assault weapons ban. the white house sent some gentle signal early on they might try to do that, and it was instantly clear that they backed away from it. the mere prospect of president obama's being elected caused a huge run on ammunition, police departments were almost running out of it. now many democrats think the situation is different because of

i'm joined now by nbc's justice correspondent pete williams. ore information is starting to come out. what's the latest? >> well, chris, there's been lots of conflicting information in official channels about what exactly happened. so much remains unknown, but we do think now we have a good idea of how these events unfolded. the horrifying sequence officials say begins friday morning. they don't know what time when adam lanza takes hundreds of rounds of ammunition and four firearms from his gun enthusiast mother and uses one of them to kill her, nancy lanza, perhaps while she lie sleeping. before leaving he damages his computer. investigators are trying to retrieve what he stored. just before 9:30 he loads the ammunition and guns into his mother's car and drives the roughly five miles to sandy hook elementary. it's place they say he knows from his childhood. >> he had a relationship to the school, had attended there. at least that's what i'm led to believe. but beyond that now, we really don't know a whole lot. >> relatives say hi once volunteer

justice correspondent pete williams is live for us at the supreme court. s now two weeks in a row, pete, that we thought we would get an answer to them about how they would plan on taking up this question of gay marriage. >> right. two case, the defense of marriage act and proposition 8 from california. nothing on the orders list today. so we'll find out later today whether the court is going to take it up again at its closed door conference on this friday. so my guess is this friday will be the next day we'll find out whether or not they'll take either of these two cases, chuck. >> and, pete, your expectation is can they put it all into one case or -- >> reporter: no, they can't. they're completely separate issues. the defense of marriage act is a federal law. it says nothing about whether states have to recognize gay marriage. it just says that if they do the federal government won't recognize them. the prop 8 case potentially raises a much more fundamental issue whether a state can deny same-sex marriage. the court could decide it on much more narrow gro

justice correspondent pete williams. so, pete, what happened was basically the white house didn't view the senate as in recess though republicans were doing the same gig. >> reporter: the question here legally, is the senate in recess. the obama administration says, no. the sessions are a sham. they last less than a minute. the congress or the senate when it decided to do this passed an order saying that no business would be conducted during these pro forma sessions. what are more do you need? the senate says we'll decide whether we're in recess or not and we say we're not, and not only that in the early part of the recess from december of last year to january of this year, the senate actually passed an extension to the payroll tax cut. so is the senate in recess or not? and this is it either going to go to the supreme court, chuck, or the courts are going to say, you know what, we can't -- this is a dispute between the political branches. you guys work it out. i don't think it's 100% clear whether the courts will decide

pete williams joins me now. and i know, pete, you say there's been a lot of searching going on of these hard drives, the computers in the lanza household and authorities are pretty pessimistic. >> right. i think you're right to say there's some doubt about whether they will ever know why. not that any answer would be adequate, of course. but secondly, the hopes for a quick answer by finding something in the house, a note, a letter, something on his computer, there was no note or letter we're told and the hard drive was so damaged, they're having a very hard time getting anything useful off of it. now, what they will try to do is they'll look at the family billing records. they'll see what internet service provider was being used. they'll look at telephone records. they'll try to look at communicationes and try to come at it in a different direction instead of from the computer outward from the outside world inward to see if that can shed any light. but apparently, adam lanza was not a user of social media. there

nbc's pete williams joins us live at the supreme court. s not a historic moment in the process of recognition for same-sex marriage? >> an important step in the process, whether it will lead toward recognition or not, we don't know, of course. that's the big question that one of these cases raises. the surprising thing here, martin, is that the court took both these cases. tft widely expected they would hear the appeal to the federal defense of marriage act because the supreme court feels its duty to step in whenever the lower court has said an act of congress is unconstitutional. the defense of marriage act passed in 1996 signed by president clinton says that in those states where people are legally married, same-sex couples are legally married, the federal government won't recognize their benefits. the challengers argue that that is unconstitutional discrimination. we assume the court would take up that case. the surprise here today is that the justices really went the whole way and took up the other big question here, which is a challeng

. >> joining me with the very latest on the investigation is nbc news justice correspondent, pete williams. pete, where are connecticut state police focusing today as they try to uncover more behind the reasons of adam lanza? >> well, there's a huge wide range of what they're doing, thomas. they're interviewing witnesses still. they haven't even gotten to interviewing the children yet. that's going to be a very difficult process to do, very delicate one is the way they described it. there were two adult survivors. they have the history of the weapons, the history of the ammunition, all of that to look at. now, the hopes were fairly high that they might have a breakthrough with adam lanza's computer that was at his mother's home at the scene where he shot his mother before this all began. but there's some pessimism about that now because he damaged the computer, took the hard drive out of the computer, damaged that further. they knew that when they got it. they thought well, you know, maybe we can get something out of it but i'm told the initial attempts to get information have been unsucce

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams joins me now. arned that the high court is going to weigh in on these two cases. tell us about them. how are they different? >> well, they're very different issues. the first is a challenge to a federal law called the defense of marriage act. it says that marriage as far as the federal government is concerned can only be between one man and one woman. that means that in the states like washington where same-sex marriage is legal the federal government doesn't recognize those marriages, denying those couples about 1,000 benefits. if the supreme court strikes that law down, it wouldn't say states have to allow same-sex marriage. it would just say when they do the federal government has to recognize them. the other is a challenge to proposition 8 in california. that's the voter passed initiative that barred same-sex marriage in that state. now, that law was overturned, prop 8 was, by a federal appeals court that said you can't give a right and then take it away like this. if the supreme court does noth

joining me from washington is nbc's justice correspondent pete williams. on the investigation, pete, you have been digging into this from the very beginning. what is the latest? >> in fact, andrea, the police say that moving vans are coming to that school today so they can take the furniture out of it to use in whatever new facility -- whatever other building they will be using to conduct classes for the students at sandy hook. the hopes had been relatively high that perhaps there would be a fairly expeditious answer to this question of why, but i think those hopes were somewhat -- having somewhat tempered in the last 24 hours. the police did find when they went to nancy lanza's house, his mother, and discovered she had been killed there, they found his computer, and they thought that they might be able to get some data off of that if he had been in contact with certain web sites, if he had been buying things, if he had said anything, but they found that the computer had been seriously damaged, that the hard drive had been removed and also damaged, and ther

i want to bring in nbc news justice correspondent pete williams with us from washington. pete, this weapon that lanza used at sandy hook elementary, a military-style rifle with 30 rounds in the clip, hundreds more at the ready, this is legal in a state with an assault weapons ban. tell our audience how is that possible? >> it's possible because of the way that assault weapons are defined in the law. this was true in the original assault weapons ban that was a federal one from 1994 to 2004. what it does is it says if a weapon possesses a certain number of features that the law considers to be primarily for military purpose such as a flash suppressor or a collapsable stock, if you have enough of those features, then the weapon becomes an assault weapon and it's banned. if it doesn't have enough of those features, then it's not. it's not the overall construction of the weapon. it's the focus on these individual features. and this is sort of the heart of the controversy, martin, because on the one hand is the point i gather your question implies, which is the assault weapons r

craig, back to you. >> pete williams from the supreme court there, thank you very much. >>> so, withntially big news coming from the high court in just a couple of days, we want to get an insider's perspective on the latest developments. my next guest is the man just for that, not only clerk for justice steven brier back in 1995, he argued before the supreme court itself in the famous case back in 2006. harvard and stanford law professor, kevin russell. good to have you with us, kevin. >> thank you. >> confusion on the fact that we didn't hear anything from the high court yesterday. how should we interpret that right now as we move into next week? positive, negative, why? >> well, i think it's inevitable that the court is going to take the case. the supreme court has a very strong tradition of taking cases where federal courts strike down federal statutes and that's what happened in this case. i think we can take as a given that the court is using this time to pick which of the multiple petitions out of multiple cases it is picking the best case for deciding that. part of which invol

nbc's pete williams has the latest information about the gunman. >> reporter: chris, this has been ausion about who has involved, and exactly what happened. but tonight, it is becoming a bit clearer, though the central question of why remains unanswered. and we are learning more about where the guns came from. investigators say the man who committed one of the worst mass shootings in u.s. history was just twenty years old. the son of a kindergarten teacher at the school he attacked. they identify him tonight as adam lanza, and they say when he entered the school he was dressed all in black, carrying two handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. >> the minutes after the officers arrived they realized what a horrific scene we had there. >> reporter: adding to the confusion, the officials say, the gunman was carrying his brother's identification. when police tracked the brother down in hoboken, new jersey, about 80 miles away, they learned the man was actually adam lanza, who was rumored to have mental health issues. >> the perpetrator of the crime is dead. as is an individual who

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams is following the investigation since the beginning. pete, when's the latest? >> reporter: well, the latest is, you know, a whole different array of lots of different things that law enforcement is doing but in terms of what you said, yes, i think we have a very clear or pretty clear idea of how things unfolded that on friday morning at sometime law enforcement doesn't know adam lanza shot and killed his mother, shot her several times as she was in bed. damaged the computer, several times. took the hard drive out and damaged that. there was hope that they could recover data from it but so far they haven't been able to. doesn't mean they won't but the discovery of this computer raised hopes of a fairly quick source of information about maybe his plans, what he had been saying, whether he was communicating with anyone. now if there's anything to be gained from that at all, it is going to take a longer time. then he drove to the school with three guns he his legally purchased in the past few years and what authorities say were hundreds of r

justice correspondent pete williams has those details. >> reporter: the hour fig consequences begin friday morning when adam lanza takes hundreds of rounds of ammunition from his gun enthusiast mother and uses one of them to kill her, nancy lanza, shooting her several times. before leaving, he damages his computer. investigators are trying to retrieve what was stored. before 9:30, he loads the guns and ammunition into his mother's car and drives to sandy hook elementary school. a place he knows from his childhood. >> he had a relationship to the school, had attended there, at least that's what i'm led to believe. but beyond that, we really don't know a whole lot. >> reporter: relatives said that his mother once volunteered there. he's carrying two handguns and a bushmaster ar-15 style rifle. the school's door is locked. so adam lanza blasts his way in with the rifle. the sound of the shots alarms principal dawn hochsprung and school psychologist who come running. immediately killed. he turns toward the first grade classes. he heads to the classroom of substitute teacher lauren rousseau. fr

nbc's pete williams joins us now from washington with all the latest details. good evening, pete. >> reporter: good evening, larry. the vilma case is the easier one. federal law signed into law by president clinton in 1996. it says if a person is legally married in a state, the federal government can't recognize those marriages. that's where you talked about federal benefits heterosexual couples get and same sex couples do not. the prop 8 thing is bigger. while potentially it's confined to the state of california only, the question it out there having given the right to gay marriage could the state then take it away through proposition 8 passed by a majority of the vote nurse 2008. having taken that case, the court could get to the bedrock issue. can any state refuse to let same sex couples get married under the federal constitution. it could potentially be narrow or very far. >> pete, as i understand it, let me ask you. this one of these things, maybe the driving one, is defense of marriage act was about paying the estate act. where one of the two people said s

joining us now is pete williams, our justice correspondent. ing the report, it seems as though the mexican affiliate of hsbc, among others, has been operating with complete immunity. >> well, not millions of dollars, billions of dollars. >> billions. >> to launder from mexico, and i thought one of the interesting things today is the justice department announced this $2 billion settlement with hsbc is for some of the banks in mexico, the cartels were such regular customers, they knew the exact dimensions in the teller windows, what the gap was, and they had boxes specially made so they could slide the bocks of cash through the teller windows. what the government said today is that they were turning a completely blind eye to this or at least knew about it and failed to do anything about it, and then, of course, doing business, allowing banks to launder money that was coming from cuba, libya, the sudan, and other countries that are on the list of prohibited countries to do business with at u.s. banks. for all those reasons it was a massive settlem

let's go to pete williams live in washington. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, alex. the nra's response comes from wane la pierre, he said the best way to protect children is to put more security officers armed with guns in the nation's schools. >> the only way to stop a monster from killing our kids is to be personally involved and invested in a plan of absolute protection. the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. would you rather have your 911 call bring a good guy with a gun from a mile away? or from a minute away? >> reporter: la pierre says banks, the president, and congress are protected by armed guards and schools should be too. somewhere between a fourth and a third of nation's schools already have an armed guard. most in middle and high schools. they didn't say anything about assault weapons or high-capacity magazines. the nra's plan was called a distraction from the more basic problem, the widespread availability of those weapons. one point of common ground between nra and president obama. they believe too much violence in pop

that's where we want to start this special hour this morning with pete williams on what more we are learningbout this investigation. and, pete, do we know about why it happened? >> no. i don't think we do, and i think -- of course, i don't think we can ever get a satisfactory answer. there is no satisfactory answer to this, such a monstrous act. there is some hope that evidence in the house where his mother was killed, where he killed his mother, they believe, will help illuminate what was in his mind. he had a computer there, and they are analyzing that to see what they can get out of it. >> what can you tell us about what happened if what was the scenario? >> well, it all starts friday morning when he takes his mother's guns. she had purchased them legally. this is a woman who grew up in rural new hampshire, comfortable with guns, collected them. he killed her. takes three of the guns to the school. drives there in her car. forces his way in, apparently by shattering a window. they had a buzzer system. he forced his way in. the principal and the school psychologist tried to stop him. he ki

. >> nbc's pete williams reporting. >>> last night president obama exited to a standing ovation in newtown, after he called for change when it comes to guns. as sandy hook remains closed indefinitely. nbc's danielle leigh joins us from newtown. how important was it for them to hear directly from the president? >> reporter: bill, good morning. people are finding comfort in the president's promise to do something to prevent future mass shootings. the country and really the whole world is behind them right now. unfortunately it does limit to replace their sadness. as this community prepares to lay to rest two of their youngest victims. for this community they're just struggling to cope with this unimaginable crime, we're just about a week away from the christmas holiday and i was speaking a man who lost a loved one at a memorial yesterday, he said that he can't celebrate this year. for many of them, the reality is just starting to sink in. the schools are here closed. as early as tomorrow, students who didn't attend sandy hook elementary school will go back to school. reporting live in newtow

that's where we want to start this special hour this morning with pete williams on what more we are learningbout this investigation. and, pete, do we know about why it happened? >> no. i don't think we do, and i think -- of course, i don't think we can ever get a satisfactory answer. there is no satisfactory answer to this, such a monstrous act. there is some hope that evidence in the house where his mother was killed, where he killed his mother, they believe, will help illuminate what was in his mind. he had a computer there, and they are analyzing that to see what they can get out of it. >> what can you tell us about what happened if what was the scenario? >> well, it all starts friday morning when he takes his mother's guns. she had purchased them legally. this is a woman who grew up in rural new hampshire, comfortable with guns, collected them. he killed her. takes three of the guns to the school. drives there in her car. forces his way in, apparently by shattering a window. they had a buzzer system. he forced his way in. the principal and the school psychologist tried to stop him. he ki