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In the latest faceoff over gun control laws, gun rights groups won big.

In Colorado this week, the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups helped oust two state senators — both Democrats — in contentious recall elections prompted by their support of a package of gun control laws the Legislature passed earlier this year.

The recalls weren't an easy lift. One of the targets was the state Senate president, John Morse, and the other, Angela Giron, represented a very solidly blue district.

Here are six things we learned from Tuesday's Colorado recall elections:

1. The Limits Of Tragedy

Even in a state that has seen two of the most horrific mass shootings — Columbine (1999) and Aurora (2012) — the gun control issue remains fiercely divisive and a topic that is far from settled. The new Colorado laws, which remain on the books, are popular with the general public. But this is a Western state with a strong gun culture. Those voters are active and motivated — and committed voters trump public opinion, especially in a low-turnout, summertime special election.

2. Grass Roots Vs. Greenbacks

The election was widely seen as a proxy battle between the National Rifle Association and the new group created by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called Mayors Against Illegal Guns. In fact, Bloomberg contributed $350,000 to try to defeat the recalls. There was plenty of outside money spent in the fight: Denver political analyst and pollster Floyd Ciruli said the airwaves were so saturated with ads it felt like the frenzied height of a presidential election in parts of this battleground state. Gun rights groups were significantly outspent, explains Ciruli, but carried the day mostly through a very effective grass-roots campaign.

3. The Big Gulp Factor

While Bloomberg's money is a boon to gun control efforts, in some parts of the country his mere presence provides the opposition with a powerful motivational talking point. Dudley Brown, president of the Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, argues that taking money from Bloomberg means you are instantly associated with his entire agenda, including "banning Big Gulps and the whole nanny state."

4. Beware Of Polling

A trend has been established when it comes to attitudes toward tougher gun laws. Michael Dimock of Pew Research says public sentiment for new restrictions goes up after tragedies like Newtown, Conn., or Aurora, but it subsides after a matter of months. And even if the public is very supportive of specific measures such as background checks or limiting the size of ammunition magazines (both are elements of the Colorado law), many people who support such things also express wariness that implementing them could erode overall Second Amendment rights. That complicates the effort to change laws.

5. The Intensity Gap

There remains a big gap in the level of intensity between gun groups and gun control advocates. For many gun owners, it's an existential issue. The choice is as stark as black and white — and they're far more likely to use it as the sole basis for their vote. And, yes, they will turn out on Election Day. Even if it's a special election on a Tuesday in early September. Gun control advocates acknowledge the intensity gap. Their challenge is in figuring out how to get their voters as motivated as the other side — especially the many who support their view but are only casually interested in the issue.

6. Get Ready For More Recalls

Denver pollster Ciruli says there's one last point worth noting: Tuesday's elections were the first recalls of Colorado legislators in history. He predicts that the recall election will become a much more frequently used tool against elected officials. Technology makes organizing a recall easier than ever and, Ciruli says, "with millions of dollars floating around the country and ready to come to battle" we'll see a lot more of this around the U.S.

Sometimes presidents have to make things up as they go along.

President Obama's decisions have had an improvisational air these past three weeks. His course on Syria kept shifting, at times seemingly guided by offhand remarks.

But the results are what count.

"If it works out in the end, the president's allowed to be uncertain," says Tim Naftali, a former director of the Nixon presidential library. "Oftentimes, the judgment you get during the crisis is not the judgment you get at the end."

There's still plenty of opportunity for problems to emerge when it comes to implementing the deal to rid Syria of chemical weapons, announced Saturday by Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

No one has tried to dispose of weapons of mass destruction on such an accelerated timetable — and certainly not in the middle of an ongoing civil war. Obama's critics note that this deal does nothing to drive Syrian President Bashar Assad from power.

Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina called the deal "an act of provocative weakness on America's part." In a statement, they wrote, "It requires a willful suspension of disbelief to see this agreement as anything other than the start of a diplomatic blind alley."

“ If you get under the skin of most crises, they'd have this kind of ad hockery.

This week, Apple introduced two new iPhones with new features, including fingerprint recognition on one model and extra password protections. This is the company's first major effort to address smartphone thefts — but it's up against a sophisticated black market that has had years to grow and adapt to meet the world's desire for smartphones.

To call smartphone-related crime an epidemic is not an exaggeration. By one estimate, more than 4,000 phones are stolen every day in the United States.

Last year the crime rate in New York City rose after years of declines. The reason? Fifteen thousand people reported a stolen phone.

Jessica Ingle was one — her phone was stolen in a crowded bar. "I didn't even notice it," she says. "They must be experienced or something at doing it without people noticing."

Pick Up The Phone

Over the summer, I spent a day driving around Brooklyn, hitting up places that advertise on Craigslist, saying "we buy used iPhones."

I bring an iPhone 4, I borrowed from my co-worker, which she had wiped.

Over the phone, a buyer named John agrees to meet me on the street in a rundown part of town.

John spots me right away. We shake hands, and he takes me inside a beauty parlor, where women sit underneath hair dryers. They hardly look up from their magazines as John introduces me to his business partner. This guy picks up the phone, flicks through several screens, and says how much do you want for it?

I don't sell it.

I'll just say it: It didn't seem to me like these guys were too concerned out of any ethical standpoint where the phone came from. They also seemed pretty confident after looking at a phone that had been wiped that they would be able to sell it on, no problem.

— Ilya Marritz, WNYC

Larry Summers has removed his name from the running to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. The former Treasury secretary informed President Obama of his decision in a phone call Sunday. The withdrawal was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

"I have reluctantly concluded that any possible confirmation process for me would be acrimonious and would not serve the interest of the Federal Reserve, the Administration or, ultimately, the interests of the nation's ongoing economic recovery," Summers said in a letter he sent to Obama after their phone call.

Summers had been seen as a frontrunner to replace Ben Bernanke, whose term expires in January. But he faced opposition from Democrats in Congress, for reasons that include his role in helping to deregulate the financial industry under President Clinton, as The Washington Post reported in a recent article on the possible political battle over his nomination.

The other top candidate is widely seen as Janet Yellen, the head of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank who was appointed by Obama to be the vice chairman of the Fed in 2010.

"Earlier today, I spoke with Larry Summers and accepted his decision to withdraw his name from consideration for Chairman of the Federal Reserve," Obama said, in a White House statement released Sunday afternoon.

The president continued, "Larry was a critical member of my team as we faced down the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and it was in no small part because of his expertise, wisdom, and leadership that we wrestled the economy back to growth and made the kind of progress we are seeing today."

In withdrawing his name, Summers told Obama that he will continue to support efforts "to reform our financial system so that no President ever again faces what you and your economic team faced upon taking office in 2009."

Summers was one of Obama's key economic advisers until late 2010, serving as the assistant to the president for economic policy and director of the National Economic Council. Since then, he has been a professor at Harvard University, an institution that he once led.

Earlier this month, a group of more than 350 economists signed a letter to Obama that backs Yellen as the next chief of the Federal Reserve.