On Friday, members of Congress went home without settling their differences over how to avoid the spending decreases and tax increases known as the "fiscal cliff."

Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon talks with Atlantic correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg about the massacre in Newtown, Conn. He wrote the cover story in this month's issue, titled "The Case For More Guns — And More Gun Control." In it, Goldberg posits that it's impossible to reduce gun crime with the number of guns already on the street, and that maybe the answer is to allow more people to carry them.

President Obama, at a memorial service in Newtown, Ct., Sunday night, talked about using the power of his office to try to prevent more shooting tragedies. Do advocates of banning assault weapons have a chance of succeeding this time around?

Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon has some thoughts to end the show, on the day after 20 children and six adults were shot dead by a troubled young man, Adam Lanza, at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

Issandr El Amrani, who runs "The Arabist" blog, talks to Renee Montagne about the latest twists and turns in Egypt's constitutional struggle.