The Penn State sex abuse scandal may soon become a federal case.

A senior law enforcement source tells NBC News that federal prosecutors and FBI agents in Pennsylvania are now “looking hard” at whether to open up their own investigation because of allegations that former football assistant coach Jerry Sandusky crossed state lines to commit child abuse. 

One of the Pennsylvania state charges against Sandusky alleges that he flew one boy – identified as Victim Number Four – to the Outback Bowl in Tampa in 1998 and then again to the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio in 1999. Starting when the boy was about 13 years old, Sandusky “repeatedly” abused him, including at the bowl games, a grand jury report charges. When the boy resisted Sandusky’s advances, the grand jury indictment charges, the football coach threatened “to send him home from the Alamo Bowl.”

The feds are also trying to determine whether Sandusky used the Internet to communicate or even recruit his victims—also grounds for the FBI to become involved. And a New York-based charity, the Fresh Air Fund, confirmed this week that it sent five children to live with Sandusky in the 1970s and one in the mid-1990s. 

“It would be inconceivable that we couldn’t find grounds” to make this a federal case, the official said.

The review of the Sandusky matter is being conducted by Peter J. Smith, the U.S. attorney in Harrisburg, Pa. In a public statement this week, he called the Sandusky allegations "extremely disturbing" because they involve the safety of children, and "therefore mandate a thorough review of all the facts and appropriate action by law enforcement at all levels, including federal agencies." Beyond supporting an ongoing inquiry by the Department of Education into the actions of Penn State officials, Smith added: "I can't comment about other specific areas of federal inquiry." 

Smith also offered federal assistance to Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly, who is overseeing the state case. Her spokeswoman told NBC News that there are now regular “communications” between the two offices.

The FBI is also making its resources – including its crime lab and behavior analysis unit – available to investigators, a state police spokesman said.

Read the grand jury indictment of Jerry Sandusky

President Obama’s decision to seek a two-year extension for FBI director Robert Mueller’s term follows a lengthy White House search for a replacement that yielded no strong candidate to replace him, according to two sources close to the selection process. Mueller's 10-year term was due to expire this summer.

White House lawyers, working closely with Vice President Joe Biden’s office, spent months scouring the country looking for potential candidates to take the premier law enforcement job in the country.

But “there was no obvious great candidate,” said one source intimately familiar with the selection process who asked not to be identified.

Some of the possible candidates the White House search team focused on said they weren’t interested, the sources said. One of these was Merrick B. Garland, a highly regarded U.S. Court of Appeals judge in D.C. and former senior Justice Department official during the Clinton administration. He had been a runner-up for the Supreme Court vacancy filled last year by Elena Kagan. 

James B. Comey Jr., a widely praised former deputy attorney general in the Bush administration who now has a lucrative position with a large hedge fund, had also indicated he didn't want the position, the sources said.

At the same time, other officials had made known they wanted to be considered for the post, including at least two Obama administration officials — Transportation Security Administration chief John S. Pistole and National Counterterrorism Center chief Michael E. Leiter — as well as a number of former senior law enforcement officials in previous administrations.

But in the end, White House officials were not overwhelmed with the choices available to them and decided instead to ask Mueller, a nominee of former President George W. Bush,  to stay on for another two years in a position he has held since just before the September 11 terror attacks.

Another widely mentioned candidate, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago with a strong background in counterterrorism cases, was thought to be too much of a wild card, the sources said. It’s not clear how seriously Fitzgerald was considered by the White House. But administration officials may also have been concerned that Fitzgerald would spur too much opposition from Republicans, because of his role in the prosecution and conviction of  I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former top aide,  when he served as special counsel in the CIA leak case.

“I think there was a feeling that Dick Cheney would call in every chit he had to torpedo” Fitzgerald, said Garrett M. Graff, the author of a new book about the FBI, “The Threat Matrix: The FBI at War in the Age of Global Terror,” who has followed the FBI selection process closely.

The difficulty in filling the position illustrates how sprawling the FBI job has become in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, said Graff. In the past, presidents have mostly turned  to federal judges and prosecutors to fill the position, but the FBI has since evolved into an international agency whose mission of combating terrorism and collecting intelligence has become as important as its traditional law enforcement functions.

In a White House statement, Obama said Mueller “has set the gold standard for leading the bureau,” adding that “Given the ongoing threats facing the United States, as well as the leadership transitions at other agencies like the Defense Department and Central Intelligence Agency, I believe continuity and stability at the FBI is critical at this time.”

The decision to retain Mueller also insures that the FBI will not be rudderless or headed by a newcomer during the upcoming tenth anniversary of 9/11 — a date that could be even more tense given al-Qaida's threats to retaliate for the killing of Osama bin Laden. Mueller was scheduled to travel to Pakistan last week but canceled his trip after the news broke about bin Laden's death. A senior bureau official indicated that given the heightened threat environment in the aftermath of the Bin Laden raid, it was not a good time for the FBI director to be out of the country.

Congress passed a law imposing a 10-year limit on the FBI director's term to prevent a single director from serving effectively for life as head of such a powerful agency, as did the bureau's most famous director, J. Edgar Hoover. For Mueller's term to be extended, Congress must approve Obama's request. But in light of the bipartisan respect for Mueller on Capitol Hill, that is not likely to be a problem.

The White House, facing fierce criticism from the gun lobby, has delayed approval of a proposed rule that federal law enforcement officials say could help them stanch the flow of U.S. assault rifles and other high-powered weapons to Mexico’s drug cartels.

The proposed rule, announced by Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms acting director Kenneth Melson on Dec. 20,  would require U.S. firearms dealers in four southwest border states to report multiple sales of long guns, such as semi-automatic assault rifles which are frequently purchased by so-called “straw buyers” for the cartels. Melson had said he expected the proposed “emergency rule” would receive approval in early January 2011.

But the announced deadline date for White House approval, Jan. 5, has come and gone, leaving ATF officials bewildered and keenly disappointed. Some officials had expressed hopes  that President Barack Obama might even address the issue during his State of the Union speech Tuesday night as a positive step the administration was taking to address the issue of gun violence.

Instead, Obama failed to discuss guns in his speech, and now some ATF officials are wondering whether the proposed emergency rule will take effect at all.  One official with knowledge of the issue said the delay may relate to questions raised by critics about ATF's legal authority to issue such a proposed rule on an emergency basis.

“This is hugely demoralizing and embarrassing for ATF,” said one former agency official who has followed the debate over the rule closely, speaking on condition of anonymity.

U.S.: Gun raids show cartels at work in Ariz.

Reid Cherlin, a White House spokesman said the proposed rule is still “under review” by the Office of Management and Budget and declined to offer any guidance on when it might take effect, if at all. An ATF spokesman declined comment.

U.S. law enforcement officials said the need for the rule was dramatically highlighted this week by federal indictments in Arizona alleging that networks of “straw buyers” – many of them working for the Sinoloa Cartel and other Mexican drug trafficking organizations -- had illegally bought hundreds of firearms from U.S. gun stores. Out of 700 firearms allegedly illegally purchased by one network between September 2009 and December 2010, more than 640 were bought at a single gun store, the Lone Wolf Trading Co., in Glendale, Ariz., according to one indictment.  Most of the weapons were AK-47s, purchased in bulk quantities of 20 to 40, often by the same buyer within days of a previous purchase. In each case, the buyers filled out federal firearms affirming they were buying the guns for themselves and underwent standard federal background checks.  In fact, according  to  federal authorities, they were buying the guns in order to smuggle them to Mexico, where many were later recovered from drug cartel operatives.

 ATF officials say the proposed rule would be an invaluable “intelligence” tool that would allow them to at least identify suspicious activity at gun stores along the southwest border. Currently, firearms dealers such as Lone Wolf Trading are required to report to ATF whenever somebody buys two or more handguns within a five day period. But they are not required to file such reports in the case of long guns, such as AK-47s, even though such assault rifles are now the “weapons of choice” for the Mexican cartels, officials say.  In this case, the Lone Wolf gun store “did nothing wrong” by selling the AK-47s in bulk quantities, although from a law enforcement perspective, the multiple purchases "kind of hit you on the smell test,” said one U.S. law enforcement official, also speaking on condition of anonymity. 

The proposed rule has drawn strong e criticism from the National Rifle Association and gun industry groups, which have publicly urged members and supporters to file public comments expressing opposition to the White House Office of Management and Budget. (OMB, an arm of the White House executive office, must sign off on all proposed federal rules.)

Larry Keane, senior vice president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents the gun industry, said his group believes the proposed rule “won't assist law enforcement” and “will make it harder for firearms dealers to cooperate with ATF.”

“The cartels that are using straw purchasers will simply modify their behavior,” he said. “Instead of sending one purchaser to buy five firearms, they’ll send straw purchasers  to five different stores — or they’ll simply recruit five straw purchasers to buy one gun at a time.”

In addition, Keane said, “If ATF can ask for  this in these four states, they can ask for that nationwide and there’s no piece of information they can’t ask for.” 

The uncertainty about the rule has fueled the disappointment of gun control groups that Obama has failed to take any action to press for tighter gun control measures, even after the recent shooting rampage in Tucson that seriously wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona. Many gun control advocates, such as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, had called on Obama to seize the opportunity to forcefully address the issue Tuesday night, pointing out that the president during the 2008 campaign had backed tougher measures, including reinstatement of the federal assault weapons ban.

Obama’s failure to say anything on the subject drew criticism from Bloomberg and other gun control advocates Wednesday.

“It’s depressing, but not surprising,” said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center, a group that advocates for gun control.

Responding to the criticism, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs suggested Wednesday that Obama may address the gun issue in the future. 

"I wouldn't rule out that at some point the president talks about the issues surrounding gun violence," Press Secretary Gibbs said aboard Air Force One on the way to an event with Obama in Wisconsin, according to the Washington Post. “I don't have a timetable or, obviously, what he would say."

More reporting by Michael Isikoff

By Michael Isikoff
NBC News National Investigative Correspondent

Now that Dick Cheney has opened the door to tighter gun restrictions, will President Barack Obama do the same?

That politically dicey question is playing out behind the scenes in the run-up to next week’s State of the Union. In the aftermath of the Tucson shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and federal Judge John Roll, gun control groups and some Democratic members of Congress are pushing to get the president to directly address the issue of gun violence in his speech to Congress next Tuesday, according to gun control advocates and congressional aides, who asked for anonymity.

Some Democratic party donors are also being urged to weigh in as part of a quiet lobbying effort to prod the president to finally speak out on an issue that he has studiously avoided since taking office, the advocates say.

“There’s a major push to get [Obama] to say something on this,” said Chad Ramsey, legislative director of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a leading gun control group. “We’ve been told he will say something, but we’re not sure how strong it will be.”

There have been a number of different gun control ideas put forward since the Jan. 8 Tucson shooting. But gun control groups most of all want Obama’s endorsement of the bill introduced this week by Democratic Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York (with more than 40 co-sponsors so far). That bill would ban the sale or transfer of high-capacity gun magazines such as the one allegedly used by Jared L. Loughner to fire off more than 30 rounds. So far, the proposal (and a companion bill to be introduced next week by Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey) has yet to pick up a single Republican co-sponsor.

But backers were buoyed Wednesday when former vice president Dick Cheney, long a stalwart supporter of gun rights, appeared open to the idea, telling NBC’s Jamie Gangel in an interview, “maybe it's appropriate to re-establish that kind of thing.” (See the video of Cheney below.)

A White House official said that aides won't publicly comment on what Obama might or might not say in the Jan. 25 State of the Union. Asked specifically about the McCarthy-Lautenberg proposal to ban high-capacity magazines, Reid Cherlin, a White House press spokesman, said in an e-mail: “A number of proposals have been put forward in the days since these tragic shootings, and we’re going to be taking a close look at all of them.”

As a sign of just how tough a fight this issue would be, the National Rifle Association on Wednesday sent a letter to members of Congress criticizing "anti-gun activists" for pushing several "schemes" after Tucson. Referring specifically to the McCarthy-Lautenberg proposal to ban clips of more than 10 rounds, Chris Cox, the group's chief lobbyist, wrote: "These magazines are standard equipment for self-defense handguns and other firearms owned by tens of millions of Americans. Law-abiding private citizens choose them for many reasons, including the same reason police officers do: to improve their odds in defensive situations." (The NRA did not respond to a request to comment on Cheney's remarks to NBC.)

Until now, the entire subject of guns has been anathema at the White House. Obama during his 2008 campaign had pledged to push to reinstate the ban on semi-automatic assault weapons. The ban, which was enacted under President Clinton in 1994 and which lapsed under President Bush 10 years later, had included a provision that prohibited the manufacture of high-capacity detachable magazines.

But White House officials pretty much dropped the issue after Obama took office, going so far as to remove the campaign pledge from the White House website. Obama, who stopped talking about guns entirely, also waited nearly two years before nominating a director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, fearing that any candidate it sent up to the Senate would incur the wrath of the formidable National Rifle Association, according to administration sources. (Sure enough, its nominee, Andrew Traver, the ATF special agent in charge in Chicago, is the target of an NRA lobbying campaign. It remains far from clear he will ever get confirmed.)

Still, advocates say that the Tucson shooting was such a searing national tragedy that it may now be impossible for Obama to duck the subject. According to gun control groups, and some law enforcement officials, a ban on high-capacity magazines is the one specific proposal that might have made a difference in Tucson, at least in lowering the body count of six killed and 13 wounded. Because of the high-capacity magazine he had attached to his Glock 19 semi-automatic, Loughner was able to get off 31 or 32 shots before he had to reload. It was only when he did so that he was wrestled to the ground.

One prong of the gun control lobbying campaign is to try to line up law enforcement backing for the McCarthy proposal, starting with the Justice Department. Thanks to the intervention of a plugged-in donor, the group has secured a meeting on Jan. 25 with Attorney General Eric Holder — the same day as the State of the Union. (Holder is on record as supporting the assault weapons ban, but like other administration officials rarely talks about it anymore. ) The groups are also hoping that McCarthy may yet have some pull with her former chief of staff, Jim Messina, now the deputy White House chief of staff and one of Obama’s most influential aides. A McCarthy spokesman said that the congresswoman has been attempting to raise the subject of the magazine ban with Messina, but said he didn’t believe the two had spoken yet.)

But skeptics wonder how far the Messina connection will get the gun control advocates. One former senior law enforcement official who follows the gun issue closely, and who asked for anonymity, noted that after Messina worked for McCarthy he served as chief of staff to Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, a strong gun rights advocate. And Messina at times has served as a White House conduit to the NRA, the former official said.

In any case, this former official predicted that, for all the outside pressure it has been getting, the White House in the end will avoid the subject, concluding it's simply not worth taking on the NRA and that it's likely to lose in the end. “As a matter of political strategy, it would be as bad for him take this on as health care was,” said this former official. “It would become a distraction from everything else.”

By Michael Isikoff
NBC News National Investigative Correspondent

A leading gun rights advocate says there is no constitutional barrier to restricting the sale of high-capacity gun magazines such as the one used by accused Tucson shooter Jared Loughner and that such proposals are justified to prevent “looney tunes” from committing more gun massacres.

Robert A. Levy, who served as co-counsel in the landmark 2008 Supreme Court case that established a Second Amendment right to bear arms, said there was no reason the court’s decision in that case should apply to the purchase of high-capacity gun magazines.

“I don’t see any constitutional bar to regulating high-capacity magazines,” Levy said in an interview with NBC. “Justice (Antonin) Scalia made it quite clear some regulations are permitted. The Second Amendment is not absolute.”

The comments by Levy, chairman of the board of the libertarian Cato Institute, come as Democratic Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York is preparing to circulate a bill Thursday to ban the sale or transfer of high-capacity magazines. Supporters took Levy’s comments as a sign that at least one gun rights advocates might be open to the idea. 

“For somebody like him to say this is significant,” said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center, a leading gun control group. Levy had been one of the lead lawyers for gun rights advocates in  District of Columbia v. Heller, the 2008 case in which the Supreme Court overturned a Washington, D.C., ban on handgun ownership and affirmed for the first time that the Second Amendment encompassed an individual right to own firearms.

There is little doubt that any gun control proposal will face tough sledding in the Congress. A spokesman said today that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is against the idea. One leading gun rights group, Gun Owners of America, posted a statement on its website this week denouncing “liberal politicians flocking like vultures” to gain political advantage from the Tucson tragedy by proposing gun control measures.

But gun control groups argue that measures like one being proposed by McCarthy in the House (and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who is sponsoring a similar bill in the Senate) are so modest and reasonable that they could gain traction. Law enforcement officials have noted that Loughner’s high-capacity magazine substantially increased the lethality of his rampage. Witnesses said he was able to get off at least 31 shots without reloading and was only wrestled to the ground when he tried to reload with another high-capacity magazine. The manufacture of such magazines were prohibited under the 1994 federal assault weapons ban, but that law lapsed in 2004, and gun experts say the sale of such magazines have since proliferated.

President Obama, during his 2008 campaign, supporting reinstating the assault weapons ban, but abandoned the idea as politically impractical after taking office. This week, the White House has declined to respond to requests for comment on whether the president would support a restriction on high-capacity magazines.

Although he is strongly opposed to most gun control measures, Levy said in this case “as a policy matter”  restricting access to high-capacity magazines such as the 33-round one used by Loughner makes sense. 

“It may stop a few of these looney tunes,” Levy said. While saying that he saw it as a “close call," he said that a restriction of “10 to 15 rounds makes sense.”

By Michael Isikoff
NBC News National Investigative Correspondent

Accused Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner was rejected by the U.S. Army in Dec. 2008 after he admitted that he was a drug user, not because he failed a drug test, an Army official said on Monday.

Loughner was questioned by an Army recruiter as part of a standard screening process for all recruits, said U.S. Army spokesman Gary Tallman. When he admitted being a drug user, Loughner was turned down and never underwent a urinalysis or other drug test, contrary to published reports.

"It never got that far," Tallman said. "He was denied entry and was never a recruit." Tallman said he had no information on whether Loughner admitted what kinds of drugs he used.

Loughner's past drug use as well as his mental health are getting attention from gun control proponents, who are questioning his ability to legally purchase the semi-automatic Glock 19 purchase that he allegedly used to shoot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and U.S. District Judge John Roll on Saturday. An aide to New York City Michael Bloomberg, who organized a group called Mayors Against Illegal Guns, said the group is examining ways to tighten federal gun laws to prohibit drug abusers and individuals with mental health problems from legally purchasing weapons.

Although drug "addicts" or "unlawful" drug users are currently barred by law from buying a gun, the standards are vague and enforcement sporadic. The number of persons denied purchases on those grounds are tiny. Among states such as Arizona that conduct their own background checks, only four people were specifically turned down for drug use between 2001 and 2008, according to FBI figures. (Thousands more were turned down for criminal convictions, which may have included drug sales or possession.)

Arizona court records show that Loughner was arrested on a misdemeanor drug paraphernalia charge in 2007, but the charges were dropped after he underwent a diversion program. He has also been described by former friends and classmates as a "pot smoker," although there are no indications he used other drugs. He had a later charge in 2008 for graffiti, the Arizona Republic reported.

NBC's chief Pentagon correspondent, Jim Miklaszewski, has more in the interview below:

(Updated at 3:45 p.m. Eastern to add comment from Lautenberg's and McCarthy's offices.)

By Michael Isikoff
NBC News National Investigative Correspondent

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., with the backing of gun control groups, are drafting a bill that would ban the sale of high-capacity magazines such as the one that was used allegedly Saturday by Jared Lee Loughner, the man accused of murdering federal Judge John Roll and trying to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., according to two gun control activists working with McCarthy's staff.

Gun control proponents are hoping to move rapidly on the measure in the wake of reports that Loughner's access to high-capacity, 33-round magazines substantially increased the lethality of his attack, the activists said. An Arizona law enforcement official confirmed to NBC News on Monday that Loughner had actually gotten off at least 31 shots during the Saturday shooting, not the 20 that were first reported. He was emptying his first high-capacity magazine and was trying to reload with another high-capacity magazine (with another 30 rounds) when he was wrestled to the ground, the official said.

"In the wake of these kind of incidents, the trick is to move quickly," said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center, one of the gun control groups working with McCarthy's office.

McCarthy, one of the House's strongest gun control proponents, whose husband was killed in a mass shooting on the Long Island Railroad in 1993, confirmed Sunday that she was drafting a new bill in the aftermath of Tuscon .an aide said her office was consulting with other members, including House Speaker John Boehner's office, and that she hoped to have draft language as early as this week. A Lautenberg aide said Lautenberg was working on a similar version in the Senate. 

"The only reason to have 33 bullets loaded in a handgun is to kill a lot of people very quickly. These high-capacity clips simply should not be on the market," Lautenberg said. "Before 2004, these ammunition clips were banned, and they must be banned again. When the Senate returns to Washington, I will introduce legislation to prohibit this type of high-capacity clip." 

Lautenberg was referring to an issue that has been highlighted in recent days by senior federal law enforcement officials: the manufacture of the kind of high-capacity magazines the suspect had with him at the Tucson shopping mall was barred under a federal assault weapons ban that was passed by Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994.

By Michael Isikoff
NBC News National Investigative Correspondent

When he began shooting outside the Tucson supermarket, Jared Lee Loughner had a Glock 19 pistol that he purchased for $500 and two high capacity 33-round magazines whose manufacture had once been banned under federal law, federal law enforcement officials said Sunday.

But that law, part of a broader 1994 assault weapons ban, expired seven years ago under President Bush. As a result, the 22-year-old Loughner was able to legally acquire high-capacity clips that substantially enhanced the lethality of his attack, officials said. Loughner was charged Sunday with the incidents involving federal employees: two counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder. (A copy of the charges is here, in a PDF file.)

“It gave him a tactical advantage,” said one federal law enforcement official who asked for anonymity. Referring to high-capacity magazines, the official said, “There’s absolutely no doubt the magazines increased the lethality and the body count of this attack.”

Some federal law enforcement officials — and gun control groups — pointed to Loughner’s lawful access to the magazines, as well as the semi-automatic Glock pistol despite an apparent history of mental troubles, as further evidence of the weakness of federal gun laws. There were already signs Sunday that, as with past shooting massacres, such as the ones at Virginia Tech or at Columbine High School in Colorado, the Tuscon assassination was reigniting the perennial debate over federal gun laws.

 “The 22-year-old shooter in Tucson was not allowed to enlist in the military, was asked to leave school, and was considered ‘very disturbed,’” according to former classmates, "but that’s not enough to keep someone from legally buying as many guns as they want in America,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

The porous nature of the gun laws  are even greater in Arizona, where the state’s governor, Jan Brewer, a gun rights champion, last year signed a law striking down a permit requirement for carrying a concealed weapon. Two years ago, she signed a law permitting guns to be carried into bars and restaurants that sell alcohol.

Loughner legally purchased the Glock pistol at a Sportsman’s Warehouse store in Tuscson on Nov. 30, filling out a standard federal form that, among other questions, affirmed  he had never been convicted of a felony or been “adjudicated” as "mentally defective.” Although he had been charged with a misdemeanor drug offense in 2008 and had been suspended in September from Pima Community College until a mental health professional certified he was not a danger to himself or others, neither disqualified him from legally purchasing the weapon.

But one federal law enforcement official involved in the case pointed to the high-capacity magazines as an even bigger issue in the attack. The Glock pistol as advertised comes with a standard clip of 15 rounds. The shooter on Saturday had four magazines with his Glock: two high-capacity magazines of more than 30 rounds, and two standard rounds, giving him combined firepower of more than 90 rounds. "He had emptied the first magazine and was trying to reload when he was tackled," said one law enforcement official.

As part of the broader 1994 assault weapons ban, Congress prohibited the manufacture of high-capacity magazines that would enable a shooter to repeatedly fire more rounds without reloading. That law drew stiff opposition from the National  Rifle Association and other gun rights groups — and was allowed to expire under President George W. Bush in 2004.

President Obama, during his 2008 campaign, pledged to restore the ban, and in its early days the Obama White House even had language on its website affirming that the administration supported making “the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent.”

But White House officials have long since dropped the issue as politically impractical, especially in light of the opposition of Blue Dog Democrats. (Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the target of Saturday’s tactic, was among them.) The  language about the assault weapons ban since has been dropped from the White House site.

How much of a difference a reinstatement of the ban would have made in the Tucson shooting is open to dispute. James Cavanaugh, a former senior official of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, noted that the assault weapons ban only barred the manufacture of new high-capacity magazines; those already on the market were “grandfathered” in and could still be sold. Even without the two high-capacity magazines he had on him, the shooter could have used the Glock’s standard click to fire off 15 rounds—enough to have hit most, if not all, of the targets in the Saturday shooting, he said.

A more relevant issue, Cavanaugh said, was the exceedingly high standard for denying mentally unstable gun purchasers from acquiring weapons. The current standard — they must be “adjudicated” mentally unstable by a court — is very difficult to meet and results in very few denials, he said. While there are unquestionably civil liberties issues at stake, Cavanaugh said, “when people are psychotic, they shouldn’t be able to just walk in and purchase a gun at a gun store like he did.” 

Sen. Harry Reid, the majority leader from Nevada, is pushing ahead with his efforts to legalize Internet poker before Congress adjourns this year, despite new criticism from state lottery officials, including a former Democratic National Committee chairman, that Reid's plan was an “outrageous” reward for big Las Vegas casino interests that heavily backed his campaign for re-election.

After declining to comment for nearly a week, Reid’s office released his first public statement on the matter late Thursday, saying his proposal would bring in new tax revenue and “protect U.S. consumers” by allowing “reputable operators with proven track records” to offer poker over the Internet to American card players.

But in the last few days, Reid’s efforts have triggered a storm of criticism from state lottery directors, Indians tribes and others who say the Senate majority leader’s last minute effort would freeze them out of the action, while benefitting big Las Vegas casino operators — such as Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International — that heavily backed Reid in his recent successful campaign for re-election.

“This appears to be designed to give an advantage to established gambling interests — many of them in Harry Reid’s home state,” said Steven Grossman, the treasurer elect of Massachusetts and the chairman of the Democratic National Committee between 1997 and 1999, in an interview with NBC News. “For him to deal us out of the action is outrageous.”

Grossman said he is only one of many state lottery officials who this week have strongly objected to Reid’s bill, especially a section that would guarantee that, for the first two years after it passed, initial licenses for online poker could go only to well-established gambling operators. This would effectively cut out state lotteries from offering their own online games, and drain revenues away from competitive products, such as instant games and keno, Grossman wrote in a letter to Reid this week.

“We could lose $100 million from this,” Grossman said. When you consider the 40 or more other states that would be similarly disadvantaged, the revenue loss for state governments would be in the billions, he added. “There’s been a lot of e-mail traffic in the last few days in which lottery directors all over the country are expressing their deep concerns.”

Reid had first circulated his proposal last week in an effort to attach it to the massive bill that would extend Bush era tax cuts. (See the earlier story from NBC: Reid's 'Net betting bill would benefit his casino backers.) But objections from senior Republicans appears to have made that move impossible. A Reid spokesman noted there other vehicles still before this year’s Congress — such as a continuing resolution to fund the government and the Dream Act. “Sen. Reid will continue working to find a way to get it done,” said the senator’s press secretary Tom Brede.

There has been a legal cloud over setting up online gambling sites inside the United States ever since 2006 when Congress, at the behest of anti-gambling conservatives, passed a law called the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which banned the processing of credit card transactions for Internet gambling transactions. At the time, Reid and some gambling companies supported the measure because of concerns that Internet gambling would compete with big Las Vegas casinos.

But in recent years, a booming offshore Internet gambling industry has popped up and many casino operators — and now Reid — have concluded that it is preferable for U.S. operators to get in on the action. In his statement Thursday, Reid noted that “Internet poker is played by millions of American every day in an essentially unregulated environment” and “neither federal nor State governments collect a dime of revenue from this multibillion dollar Internet poker industry.”

As for the idea that Reid was acting to benefit big casino operators that backed his campaign, his press secretary Brede responded: “Sen. Reid has a long track record of fighting for the largest industry in the state, and he will continue to do so. Look at what the top industry in the state is. Would anyone criticize a Senator from Michigan for fighting for the auto industry?”

As noted by NBC News and others in recent days, two of the biggest potential beneficiaries of the Reid proposal would be MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment (formerly Harrah’s.) Both firms heavily backed Reid’s re-election, spending more than $650,000, including $300,000 that was pumped into Patriot Majority PAC, a so-called “super PAC” set up by a former Reid communications director that ran attack ads against Sharron Angle, Reid’s Republican opponent. Caesars/Harrahs, according to critics, would be particularly well advantaged to move into the online Poker market because the casino already hosts the “World Series of Poker.”

---

Related: American University's Invesstigative Reporting Workshop reported on msnbc.com about Reid's support of a Chinese wind farm project seeking $450 million in U.S. stimulus money.