Recovery. Reporter the population shrunk, and yet the number of the restaurants went up . Yeah, its a miracle, isnt it . Captioning sponsored by cbs this is the cbs evening news with scott pelley. Pelley good evening. The Senate Judiciary committee had assembled for the first congressional gun control hearing since the sandy hook tragedy when the surprise witness appeared. Former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of arizona was led by the hand by her husband, mark kelly. It was two years ago this month that giffords was shot through the head during a meeting in tucson. 18 others were shot and six died. A day of testimony began with this speaking is difficult, but i need to Say Something important. Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children. We must do something. It will be hard, but the time is now. You must act. Be bold. Be courageous. Americans are counting on you. Thank you. Pelley giffords, who is partially blind, resigned from Congress Last year. The rest of todays hearing featured gun control advocates and opponents, and our nancy cordes was there. Reporter at one end of the witness table was Gabrielle Giffords husband. At the other was the c. E. O. St National Rifle association, wayne lapierre, who argued new gun laws are nun necessary. The fact is we could dramatically cut crime in this country with guns and save lives all over this country if we would start enforcing the 9,000 federal laws we have on the books. Im talking about drug dealers with guns, gangs with guns and felons with guns. Theyre simply not being enforced. The numbers are shocking. Reporter democrats and some republicans said background checks need to be expanded to include firearm purchases made at gun shows. Baltimore county police chief jim johnson the best way to stop a bad guy from getting a gun in the first place is a good background check. My problem with back background checks is youre never going to get criminals to go through universal background checks. Mr. Lapierre, thats the point. The criminals wont go to purchase the guns because there will be a background check. It will stop them from the original purchase. You missed that point completely. Senator i think its basic. Senator, i think you missed let be there be order reporter much of the debate centered around a proposed assault weapon ban that would also limit the rounds in a magazine to 10. Giffords husband mark kelly argued those restrictions would have limited the carnage Jared Loughner could commit. In 15 second hes emptied his magazine. It contained 33 bullets, and there were 33 wounds. Reporter but gun rights advocate gail trotter argued one persons assault weapon is anothers last line of offense. And the peace of mind that a woman has as shes facing three, four, five, violent attackers, intruders in her home with her children screaming in the background, the peace of mind that she has knowing that she has a scarylooking gun, gives her more courage when shes fighting hardened, violent criminals. Reporter both sides agreed today the government need to crack down on straw purchasers, people who buy guns for others who are often criminals. The chair of the Senate Judiciary committee, a democrat, says he plan foz craft legislation that deals with some of these issues within the month. Scott. Pelley and we should mention Jared Loughner is serving multiple life terms now. Nancy, thanks very much. The state of connecticut, where newtown is located, is also Holding Hearings about whether to change its gun laws. One of the witnesses at the hearing tonight will be nichole hockley. Her sixyearold son, dylan, was killed at sandy hook elementary school. She spoke with Michelle Miller today at the offices of sandy hook promise, the antiviolence group formed by newtown residents. Reporter why is now the time for you to stand up and speak . Now is the time because its the only way i can. Start to make any sense of this for myself. Dylan was just pure love when you get right down to it. I am not being fair to his legacy and memory if i sit back and do nothing. Reporter what do you want to happen . All ive seen in all honesty, so far, are people immediately jumping on agendas. I find that disgusting. I would rather see more conversation and listening taking place. Reporter the hockleys lived just yards away from the home of the gunman. She saw adam lanza only once. It was from a distance, the week of the attack. Its a physical reaction to realize that at some point, so soon before it happened, that youd actually seen the person who took your child. Reporter had you ever met the lanzas . Im ashamed to admit no. Reporter ashamed . Why . That house was kind of like a black spot in the neighborhood. No one spoke about them. I never heard a neighbor speak of them. Perhaps if there was more engagement within a community with neighbors looking outor each other, supporting each other, then maybe they would have gotten help in a different sort of way. But to know that you know everyone on your street except one house, and then that happens to be a house with people tha that. Or a person that does this, thats kind of hard to swallow. So theres some regret there. Reporter with 100 people signed up to speak at this public hearing tonight, scott, organizers expect this to last well past midnight. Pelley michelle, thank you very much. Now, a massive cold front is moving through the Eastern States tonight after bringing severe weather, including tornadoes, to the midwest and to the south. At least two people have been killed. One of the twisters slammed into adairsville, georgia, northwest of atlanta. Come oget back in here pelley homes and offices were torn apart. One death has been reported there. Juanita carter was sleeping when it hit. I was hanging i was on my my back was across those blocks and i dont remember nothing after that. I blacked out. Pelley water shot into the air when a pipe burst and investigation were tossed all over interstate 75, including this mans truck. It was just unbelievable. Its its nothing nothing like i ever seen before in my life. Pelley another tornado struck outside nashville, tennessee, home after home was destroyed, and one death is reported there. In memphis, 200yearold trees were no match for the wind. And cbs news weather consultant David Bernard is in miami, tracking the storms. David, what can we expect next . Reporter scott, lets take a look at our collection of doppler radars we have right now and we have a slew of tornado watches that are in effect this evening from tallahassee, florida, right through georgia and the carolinas, and within the last five minutes, the washington, d. C. Area is now under a tornado watch. So these are the areas were going to have to watch for the worst weather as we go through the overnight hours. But even philadelphia and new york could see strong winds overnight with some of the storm. Pelley seems early in the year for this kind of thing. How did this storm get organized . Reporter well, we had a bunch of ingredients that came together, kind of like all the right ingredients, i guess you could say, at the wrong time and what were talking about are three main umass a polar air mass, which we expect, its wintertime pouring out of the plains. At the same time we have these powerful jet stream wins that were coming you out of rockies yesterday. And extra warm moist air thats been spilling over the gulf coast. Put all three together and that meant strong winds and in some cases tornadoes yesterday. Fortunately all of that will move off the east coast later tonight and tomorrow things are going to settle down considerably but be a lot colder. Pelley david, thanks very much. The necome has turned unexpectedly cloudy. Government data out today showed the economy shrank for the First Time Since the great recession. It contracted at an annual rate of 0. 1 the last three months of 2012. The economy had grown 3. 1 the previous quarter. A shrinking economy over time spells recession, but dont panic yet. This number is likely to be revised as more data come in. Senior Business CorrespondentAnthony Mason found this dark cloud may have a silver lining. Reporter the headline may be disappointing, but the underlying economy was showing renewed strength at the end of last year. Consumer spending, which driefsz twothird of the economy, was up 2. 2 . Home building soared more than 15 . And contributed to Economic Growth in 2012 for the first time in six years. Only Government Spending cuts on defense caused overall Economic Growth to flatline. Julia coronado is chief economist. The fiscal tightening is taking a toll. Took a toll on growth in 2012. It will take a toll again in 2013. Reporter but in the trade channels of the u. S. Economy, the tide apeerdz to be turning. Are things Getting Better . Things are definitely Getting Better. Robert landry is the chief commercial officer at the port of new orleans, a gateway to the mississippi. 33 million tons of cargo come through here a year. Do you think the port is a kind of leading indicator . We see a lot of things before i think it really hits the economy because when people are making decisions, theyre making them months advance to get them on board a ship. Reporter so whats happening now . Right now, were seeing things pick up. Were seeing more steel coming in. Reporter steel imports are up double digits. Container traffic in the port of new orleans hit an alltime high in 2012. And cruise ship traffic also set a record. Were also seeing a large amount of exports as well. So we feel very comfortable with the way things are going. Reporter the fed said today the pause in Economic Growth was due largely to weatherrelated disruptions from super storm sandy and other temporary factors. As one economist put it, its the best cracks in the u. S. Economy youre ever going to see. Scott. Pelley anthony, you mentioned that federal spending, Government Spending had dropped. How much does that have to do with this cracks . Reporter well, its a huge factor, scott. Essentially, it wiped out a lot of private sector gains. And, of course, were going to see congress debating more cuts in the coming months. So that could put more pressure on the economy. But the private sector continues to show improving strength. Pelley overseas, israeli jets attack inside syria today. The syrians claim the target was a military research facility, but our david martin at the peak tells us, that israel hit a convoy believed to be carrying weaponweapons to hezbollah, the militant group based in lebanon. Syria is in the middle of a ruinous civil war. Israel and the u. S. Are worried that syrian arms, including chemical weapons, could wind up in the hands of terrorists. We have new information on the problems with boeings revolutionary 787. Well show you why its a lot more difficult for police to trace a gun than you might expect. And well remember the last of the andrews sisters when the cbs evening news continues. Not easy to find, but worth it. Ot, but with copd making it hard to breathe, i thought those days might be over. So my docto prescrib. It helps significantly improve my lung function starting within five minutes. 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The driver is being called a hero for protecting the other children on the bus, 20 of them got away safely. No word on the motivation. When a gun is involved in a crime, the federal bureau of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms often gets involved to find out where that gun ciem from. But we were surprised to learn how low tech that tracing operation is. Chip reid got a look inside. Reporter when a gun is found at the scene of a shoot, one of the first calls made by Police Across the country is to the National Tracing Center in martinsburg, west virginia. Verify that serial number for me, please. Reporter 350 employees undertake the painstaking process of tracing guns to identify their owners. Charles houser has been cheeft center since 2005. There is a perception, even among Law Enforcement agencies, that if you send a serial number from a gun up here that we prug it into a computer and the name of a gun owner pops out as if theres a National Registration system. Theres no such thing. Reporter no such thing because federal law prohibits the creationave National Database of gun purchases. That ban was first slipped into an appropriations bill in congress in 1979 and became permanent law in 1986 in a law sponsored by two strong supporters will of gun rights, idaho republican james mccliewr, and missouri democrat maryland volkmer. The ban on a federal gun sale database has been strongly supported by the powerful National Rifle association. The nra told us it is opposed to any registry of lawabiding gun owners. So workers here are left with an antiquated system to trace 350,000 guns a year, requiring them to review by hand, tons of paper records and 500 million entries on microfilm. Critics say its the Law Enforcement equivalent of the horse and buggy. Im calling in regards to the trace on the glock that we had. Reporter investigators spend much of their time on the phone. We actually have to contact the chain all the dealers in the chain of distribution. Reporter more than a third of the traces involve a gun store thats gone out of business. Those records are sent to the tracing center, which receives more than 1,000 boxes a month. Many of the records are barely legible. For example, these are records that we offed as a result of her cane katrina. We had to dry these out in the parking lot. Reporter you dried these out in the parks lot. Yes, circ we did. Reporter despite the burdensome process gun traces marked urgent are usually completed in 24 hours but routine traces average about five days. The a. T. F. s workload is about to become even heavier, scott, because president obama has proposed all guns recovered by federal Law Enforcement agencies be addressed. That would add about 100,000 more gun traces each year. Pelley chip reid at the a. T. F. Chip, thanks very much. That battery flab has grounded all of the 787 dreamliners may that battery flab has grounded all of the 787 dreamliners may be worse than we thought. Thats next. 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