Update: Keen-eyed readers may have noticed that two items among all the crap that was hauled out of the Lanza residence were an "NRA certificate for Nancy Lanza" and a copy of the "NRA Guide to the Basics of Pistol Shooting."  This has lead many to assume that the Lanza's were NRA members.  As such, the National Rifle Association was quick to release the following statement:

Lieutenant J. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police issued a brief statement yesterday in response to a New York Daily News report detailing particulars of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting that occurred last December. An anonymous source attending a law enforcement seminar in New York leaked supposed information from the investigation about the shooter, Adam Lanza, claiming that he had a spread sheet filled will data from other mass shootings.

A sensational New York Daily News report (dug up by Kotaku) details what a "law enforcement source" (who spoke at length with the paper) calls Adam Lanza's "score sheet," a spreadsheet filled with information from past mass killings.

A Connecticut high school went into lockdown mode this afternoon after a threatening note was discovered in a hallway, the Weston Forum reports. Weston High school, which is located in the southern part of the state and not too far from Newtown, was locked down after a note was found threatening specific members of the school staff and students.

Today lawmakers in Connecticut held a public meeting to get feedback from the community and interested parties on several pieces of legislation that have been proposed about video games in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting in December. Supporters of legislation to regulate video games told members of the General Assembly’s Children’s Committee that they believe that there is a causal link between playing violent video games and violent real-world act committed by youth.

The Hartford Courant is reporting that lawmakers in Connecticut are set to hold a public hearing on Tuesday related to several proposed bills to deal with video game violence. A public hearing of the legislature's Children Committee is scheduled for Tuesday to decide on a bill pushed by Sen. Toni Harp (D-New Haven) that would prohibit minors from playing violent games in arcades. The hearing will also address a bill pushed by Sen.

An interesting article on The Atlantic examines why sin taxes like the one proposed for video games by Connecticut State Rep. Debralee Hovey (R-112th District) never really do anything productive. You may recall that Hovey, who represents the district that includes Newtown, Connecticut, proposed a 10 percent sin tax on violent video games rated "Mature" by the ESRB.

Over the weekend, two Newtown, Connecticut residents opened a family friendly video game arcade in the town called the Sandy Hook Arcade Center (as reported by Polygon). The all-ages arcade is meant to help the town heal and promote family values in the aftermath of the elementary school shooting in December where 26 human lives were lost as the result of a shooting rampage by a lone gunman.

It looks like Connecticut Sen. Toni Harp (D-New Haven) and Rep. DebraLee Hovey (R-Newtown) are not the only Connecticut lawmakers that proposed bills related to video game violence in the January session. Sen. Scott Frantz (R-Greenwich) and Sen.

Connecticut State Representative Debralee Hovey (R-112th District) isn't the only one that introduced a bill in the January session apparently. Connecticut State Senator Toni Nathaniel Harp (D-10th District) introduced S.B. No.

The Escapist reports that Connecticut State Representative Debralee Hovey (R-112th District) has introduced H.B. No. 5735, or "an act establishing a sales tax on certain video games." The bill would add a ten percent tax in Connecticut on video games rated "Mature" by the ESRB, which would then be redirected to the State's department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

Sen. Christopher Murphy (D-Conn.) gave a speech (which you can watch for yourself to your left) during Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D- CA) press conference introducing a new bill that would ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines. Murphy said that if Feinstein's bill had been law many of the children that died during the December 14 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut might still be alive. Senator Murphy also blamed video games for their part in influencing the shooter, though proof that video games had anything to do with influencing him has yet to be produced.

New York Senator Charles Schumer and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg criticized the National Rifle Association for releasing its iOS shooting range simulation app NRA Practice Range on the one month anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown Connecticut. Pressure from politicians around the country ultimately forced Apple to change the rating from age 4+ to a rating of 12+. Schumer had called for a rating of 17+.

Last week SouthingtonSOS, a group comprised of Southington, Connecticut community organizations announced a violent videogame buyback program, where citizens could deposit violent games into what basically amounted to a trash bin for a gift certificate provided by local merchants. Those game discs would be snapped and tossed in the trash...

The Escapist reports that community members in the town of Southington, Connecticut have put a bulls eye on violent video games in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that saw 20 children and six adults murdered by a lone gunmen in mid-December.

The Hartford Courant is highlighting a story about a 12-year-old Newtown, Connecticut boy who has started a campaign to "stop playing violent video games." Max Goldstein, a 12-year-old student who attends Newtown Middle School, says that he decided to stop playing games like "Call of Duty" after attending the funeral of one of his brother's friends who had been killed during the Sandy Hook Elementary School shoot

The Entertainment Consumers Association has issued a statement today on the tragic shooting on Friday, Dec. 14 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT that resulted in the death of 20 children, six adults at the school, the shooter and his mother.

You can read the entire statement below:

Final Update: A number of things about our previous story are proving to be erroneous as more details about the shooting today in Newtown, Connecticut comes to light. Here is what we know so far:

Adam Lanza, and not Ryan Lanza (his older brother) has been identified as the shooter. His brother Ryan Lanza, who lives in Hoboken, New Jersey is being questioned by police. Lanza's father, who lives in Connecticut, was similarly questioned, one of the law enforcement officials said.

Earlier this month we wrote a story on the President's re-election campaign invading Westport Connecticut to take part in a fundraiser hosted by movie producer Harvey Weinstein. We thought it was simply a bad case of timing for a number of reasons (it caused chaos in the city and because he was pushing hard for passage of the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 in the Senate).

Last Friday the White House confirmed that they were weighing their options regarding an Executive Order since the Senate was unable to pass Senator Joseph Lieberman's (D-Connecticut) Cybersecurity Act of 2012, despite significant lobbying resources spent by the MPAA, RIAA and ESA. The announcement was met with lukewarm enthusiasm by legislators on both sides of the isle, who are not used to the Oval Office creating such broad-sweeping new laws.

In March of last year the state of Illinois decided to pass a law that collected Internet sales tax from online companies like Amazon.com and eBay. Commonly referred to as an "affiliate nexus tax," the law passed by Illinois and other states including California, Connecticut, and New York, required online retailers who advertised on "affiliate sites" that had a physical presence in the same state to collect sales tax. The Illinois law had broad support among lawmakers and the state’s governor, Gov. Pat Quinn (D).

The Connecticut State Senate is considering a bill that would add taxes to digital goods. The "stated purpose of the bill, is "to include digital movies, books, music, ringtones, audio and video works and similar downloadable products as subject to the sales and use tax." If passed, the bill would take effect July 1, 2012, and would apply to sales occurring on or after that date.

While we're likely not going to post every letter we get from readers who receive some sort of response from their elected representatives concerning SOPA and Protect IP, the following response received by ECA president Hal Halpin from congressmen Jim Himes (D- Connecticut’s 4th District) is worth reading - only because it strikes a balance between thinking free speech and rights (like due process and fair use) should be protected with copyright holders' interests.

On the heels of a ruling that wearing World Wrestling Entertainment garb to Connecticut voting locations on election day would not constitute illegal electioneering for Republican Senatorial nominee Linda McMahon, former CEO of the WWE, the entertainment organization plans to hand out merchandise at select polling places.

Last week, the office of Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz had posed that the wearing of WWE merchandise in polling places could be illegal, prompting current WWE CEO Vince McMahon to file a lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton eventually ruled that voters could wear WWE gear, a ruling that “pleased” Vince.

Even though Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal had a few moments of shame after he was caught overstating his military service earlier in the year, he managed to stay well ahead of his Republican rival, but things are changing rapidly.

That’s because, it seems, that Linda McMahon has the momentum, according to the latest polls so much so, in fact, that a Reuters story from Sunday has the political chattering classes in the state afraid to place any bets on who might win in Nov. Connecticut’s primary is today, and while McMahon and Blumenthal will have a fairly easy time rolling over their party's challenges to incumbency (barring any surprises), their match-up this November won't be a cake-walk for either of them.

What's most interesting about this race is that both candidates have a history with videogames. For Blumenthal it has been against video games in general, and for McMahon it has been as a character in videogames based on the company she ran for a very long time.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D), who is running for Chris Dodd's vacated U.S. Senate Seat, has joined a "multi-state coalition" seeking to restrict violent videogames. Blumenthal, in his capacity of Attorney General of the state, brings Connecticut into the fray alongside nine other states, siding with California in its upcoming Supreme Court battle.

In an amicus brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court, Blumenthal and nine other states are defending California’s right to enforce a law prohibiting the sales of select videogames to minors. The law was struck down by the California Appeals Court, but the Supreme Court announced earlier this year that it would review the case.

In a press release issued by the Attorney General's office, Blumenthal’s brief states that California’s law does not seek to "broadly prohibit" minors from buying "violent games," but rather a subset of titles that "encourages players to commit graphic acts of homicide, rape, and sadism."

Unlocked! What do you do when you are playing videogames and your girlfriend's son rudely slams the door on you? Threaten him with a weapon.

What do you do if your boyfriend is being hauled away by the cops on Father's Day for threatening your son with said weapon? Spit in the face of the police officers, be combative and go with your boyfriend to jail.

This is just what happened when Vernon Connecticut police showed up in response to a 911 call. Here's more from an AP story:

Connecticut senatorial candidate Linda McMahon, her husband Vince McMahon Jr., and their company, World Wrestling Entertainment, are being sued by the widow of Owen Hart, according to the Associated Press. McMahon, who is probably the only candidate running in the 2010 election cycle to appear in a WWE videogame, is vying for the senate seat being vacated by Chris Dodd.

Owen's widow, Martha Hart, is suing the McMahons and the WWE because the company continues to use her husband's image to promote the WWE. Martha does not want Owen Hart's name associated with the WWE in any way. Martha Hart planned to file her lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Hartford.

Owen Hart, brother of Brett "The Hitman" Hart, died when he fell 78 feet from a harness as it lowered him into a wrestling ring in Kansas City, Mo., on May 23, 1999. He was 34. Martha settled a lawsuit with the WWE concerning Owen's death in 2000. In a written statement Martha explained why she is suing the WWE now:

It's hard to be a candidate who is a part of an industry that makes its money off of gratuitous violence. Linda McMahon, like California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, has made millions off of an industry that has no problems with using sex, violence and adult themes to sell its image. But the Connecticut senatorial candidate running in the Republican primary shares another distinction with the Governator: she's a playable video game character, as the video in this story shows.

In arguably one of the best wrestling video games ever made -- WWF No Mercy -- Linda, complete her husband's "Mac Stunner" finisher, is an unlockable, playable character. Linda is also part of a storyline involving her daughter Stephanie McMahon and real life husband Hunter Herst Helmsely. In the segment, which starts at the 4:10 mark and ends at the 5:29 mark, Linda enters the ring, makes a ruling on a world championship match against wrestler Kennedy and then gives both her daughter and Triple H a "Mac Stunner" after her daughter attempts to slap her across the face.

In politics, 24 hours is a lifetime when you are in the media spotlight. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal can attest to that personally, thanks to a freshly conducted telephone poll of "likely voters" in the state conducted by Rasmussen. In one day, Republican senatorial candidates are closing in on the Attorney General, who once enjoyed double digit leads over every possible opponent this fall. But the darling of the CT political machine has taken a real credibility hit not only in CT but around the country, following a New York Times report that he exaggerated his military record (or at the very least never corrected the record on it).