The money won¡¯t do much to help businesses though. More than 200,000 had some kind of damage or were otherwise impacted by Sandy. And that¡¯s why some of them and many lawmakers are calling for more government aid. Congress is scheduled to take up another bill worth $51 billion in businesses relief, but not until January 15th. 

Another issue, Congress is looking at, guns. The goal is to find a way to prevent more tragic shootings in the U.S. But there are a lot of ideas about how to do that, so many that in the U.S. House of Representatives alone, almost 12 bills were introduced last week that had something to do with gun violence. So is the answer more restrictions on guns or the people who can buy them, or more guns in more places? Congress, surprise, surprise, will have to find some middle ground on this to get something through both Houses and signed by the president. 

As students in Sandy Hook Elementary returned to class, former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords nearly killed in a mass shooting two years ago, visited Newtown, Connecticut. And on Capitol Hill, lawmakers arrived to begin a new session of Congress, with members in both chambers taking aim at guns. 

This is a fight that the American people are going to have to stand up and stiffen their spine. 

California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein plans to introduce a bill to ban more 100 assault weapons, eight years after the old ban she championed expired. Another Senate bill would ban high-capacity magazine, and among nearly a dozen gun bills introduced on day in the House are efforts to ban online sales of ammunition, and to require background checks for all firearm sales, including at gun shows. Two bills from freshmen Republican congressmen would allow more guns around schools, echoing the position of the National Rifle Association. 

The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. 

We are better than 32 gun murder every day. 

Pro-gun control groups plan to keep pressing for action, but what are the prospects for their success?

If you¡¯re talking about stuff around the edges, like maybe banning high-capacity ammunition magazines, that might be possible. The NRA is the big issue. But I wouldn¡¯t say it¡¯s necessarily on the Republican side only, it¡¯s on the Democratic side also. You have fully half of your new Senate has an either A+, A, or A- rating from the NRA. So if you want anything to happen on gun control, you¡¯re going to have to have at least half of the Senate upsetting the NRA, so that¡¯s a very difficult proposition. 

There is no more uphill fight than this. The question is do we fight or do we knuckle under? 

President Obama says he wants action on gun legislation this year. He¡¯s asked Vice President Biden to lead a task force to come up with recommendation on gun policy. They are expected this month. Athena Jones, CNN, Washington.