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The powerful tornado flattened entire blocks in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore. Early Wednesday, the death toll remained at 24, with scores more people injured and displaced.

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You’d think that, with all the talk in Washington about the IRS, Benghazi, the AP’s phone records, and oh yeah, immigration, that the debate over gun control is over. But a few determined senators still want to bring the issue of expanded background checks up for a vote sometime this summer.

One thing missing from the debate is the issue of firearms training. Every state requires training to drive a car, but very few require any to buy a gun. That’s a growing concern to many gun policy experts, especially as the demographics of gun ownership change.

Preston Whittington lives in Tupelo, Miss. A few months ago, he bought a handgun, a Glock 19. Just in case.

“You know, I have a family, I have a two-year-old son, and one of the things that has been in the forefront of my mind since -- especially since -- he was born is providing for and defending my family,” Whittington says.

He is among a growing number of American gun owners. A recent survey found that half of all gun purchases were for self defense. That’s up from a quarter in 1999.

Whittington’s gun set him back $575. It took him a while to save up for it. But his spending didn’t stop there. He forked over almost $250 for training on how to use it.

“I was not going to buy a firearm unless I signed up for training and safety classes the exact same day,” he says.

Whittington calls a firearm “a tool that has the ability to cause a lot of damage,” and as he puts it, he needed to learn how to behave with one. Whittington didn’t grow up with guns.

“To be honest with you, since I was never exposed to it, I never understood the need for it and it was just never a part of my life,” he says. “So, it wasn’t something that I was passionate about.”

That changed five years ago. Whittington had moved to the U.S.-Mexico border, to work at a factory in Nogales. He remembers the photos in newspapers, of violence related to the drug trade.

“And the more I began to see what was going on in Mexico, the more I started to think about my own safety, and my own ability to defend myself here, in the States,” Whittington says.

He and his wife debated whether or not to become gun owners for three-and-a-half years, and when they finally made the decision, Whittington was struck by something: how easy it is.

In Mississippi, there is no permit needed and no training required to buy a gun.

“You fill out some paperwork, and they do a quick background check,” he says. “If everything checks out, then you’re able to walk away with the firearm the same day.”

That’s how it works in many states.

Phil Cook teaches public policy at Duke University. He says that, even in states with what are considered to be the strictest gun laws, you can buy a firearm without any hands-on training.

“I think that what worries a lot of us is that, with all of the talk about guns and self-defense we now have, novices are walking into gun stores and buying a gun who really know nothing about it.”

After he bought his pistol, Preston Whittington went to the Ridge Crossing Shooting Club.

Most gun owners who have gotten formal training got it in the military. Marine Corps recruits study marksmanship for three weeks. That kind of training would cost a civilian thousands of dollars.

Whittington and his wife took a private lesson from Nicky and Dede Carter on a Sunday afternoon. The Whittingtons paid $75 each.

Nicky Carter always starts in the classroom, with two hours on safety.

“And then, we go mostly into your fundamentals,” he says. “Your sight picture, your grip, your stance, breathing, trigger control...All your basic fundamentals.  And shooting.”

According to Dede Carter, demand for training has been up since President Obama was reelected, and since the shooting in Newtown, Conn.

“We are booked into September at this point,” she says.

Roughly a million and half Americans are expected to take firearms training course this year. The Whittingtons had to wait two months for a lesson. Meanwhile, that Glock sat locked away, in a safe on a shelf.

“I would feel more comfortable if everyone else that owned a gun around me, if I knew that they had taken the same safety training,” he says.

Right now, there’s no way to know what training they’ve had. If any at all.

The Fed chairman cautioned Wednesday that if interest rates were to start rising now, the economy could slump. Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes rose — and would have been even stronger if not for tight inventory.

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A measles epidemic in Wales that has infected more than 1,000 people is the fallout from a fraudulent paper linking the vaccine and autism published almost 15 years ago, health officials say. Many of the children and teenagers sick with measles were never vaccinated.

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Lois Lerner, who's at the center of the political firestorm over her agency's singling out of some conservative groups for extra scrutiny, invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions from Congress.

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It used to be that every dollar was worth a certain amount of gold. In theory you could walk into a bank and exchange your greenback for a little chunk of the yellow stuff -- the bank "promised to pay" a certain amount of gold for your note. But that caused some big problems.

Some banks, and even some countries, kept enough gold or silver in their vaults to make good on every promise written on every note they issued. Other countries started doing business that way, but soon began issuing more notes without reserving any additional precious metal. This was a risky endeavor: If everyone wanted their gold at the same time, the countries' banks wouldn't be able to pay them. When people began to realize this, the value of the notes fell sharply and the prices of goods rose. This is what's called inflation.

The upside of having enough gold in one's vaults to redeem every note is that everyone has confidence in the value of the money -- it's as good as gold. The downside is that raising more money is hard to do: one needs to find more gold to issue more notes, and the more one needs the gold, the more expensive it becomes.

When a currency becomes more expensive, a couple of things happen. First, the price of goods falls. When this happens, people who have gold tend to hoard it, so the currency becomes even more expensive, and that drives down the price of goods further still. This is what's called deflation. Deflation is great at first: Cars are cheaper! Toys are cheaper! Food is cheaper! But pretty soon the scorpion of deflation shows the sting in its tail. Investors become reluctant to invest in anything that is losing value day after day, so they stop putting their money into companies and they begin selling their shares. This is what economists call a deflationary spiral.

Investors sell some of their shares and buy something presumed to be a safe haven, like gold or treasury bonds. If enough investors sell, and there aren't many buyers, the price of shares falls. Other investors worry their shares will be worth less the next day, so they sell their holdings too. Pretty soon, everyone's selling: No one wants to buy something that in two weeks will be worth less than the amount they paid for it. In this situation, investors are only interested in safe havens. They're scared about what will happen to their money if they buy shares or make loans, so they do neither. Without investment, companies stop growing. They cut back, lay people off and stop buying from other companies. Before long, the entire economy is in danger of being plunged into a depression.

From the moment the first currency was created, governments have battled the twin terrors of inflation and deflation by issuing what's called fiat currency. This means banknotes are worth a certain amount by government order, or fiat. In other words, it's the government saying, "This note is worth $20 for no reason other than because we say it is." Fiat currencies have been around for centuries, but it wasn't until the U.S. government decided to make the dollar a fiat currency in 1972 that almost the entire world decided to adopt a similar system.

But inflation isn't all bad. In fact, governments quite like inflation -- in moderation. Inflation may devalue existing currencies a little bit, but that can be offset by the fact that there's a lot more money coming into the system: money to spend, or invest, or build, or even hire more staff. So, in moderation, inflation can help keep people employed. Inflation, then, is part of our financial world, a necessary evil that most modern governments believe they are much better equipped to tackle using fiat currency.

Abridged excerpt from "Man vs Markets, Economics Explained (Plain and Simple)," by Paddy Hirsch

Although scientists have known that a funguslike organism caused the potato blight that triggered the Great Famine in Ireland in the 1840s, they didn't know which strain was the culprit. But they do now, thanks to the genes in some 19th century potato samples.

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David Greene talks to Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin about the cleanup and recovery efforts in her state after Monday's tornado that devastated the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore.

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German business software company SAP has announced an effort to actively recruit and hire people with autism. The move comes after a successful pilot project in India in which SAP hired computer programmers who have autism, a developmental disorder that, among other things, can impair a person's ability to interact with others.

SAP, which says it wants autistic employees to make up 1 percent of its global workforce by 2020, is hoping other companies follow its lead.

"Employee engagement has gone up, the turnover rate has gone down, and the productivity from the entire team has gone up," says Anka Wittenberg, SAP's Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer in Frankfurt, Germany. Wittenberg adds that people with autism are extremely good at repetitive tasks and maintaining a high level of concentration. 

To hear more about how SAP plans to recruit autistic talent, click on the audio player above.

A friend of the man killed Wednesday in Orlando says the FBI was questioning the man about his connection to Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the men suspected of planting the bombs in Boston.

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Beijing has announced it will add 50 miles of subway track by the end of next year, making the city's subway system bigger than New York's. But will the new additions alleviate the city's notorious traffic and pollution?

Just five years ago, the Beijing subway system was 70 miles long. Today it’s nearly four times that. But economics professor Zhao Jian at Beijing’s Jiaotong University says it’s going to take more than hundreds of miles of subway lines to solve Beijing’s traffic problem.

"The key to alleviating traffic and pollution in Beijing is to raise the cost of owning and using cars," says Zhao. "As it stands, parking fees are very low and traffic tickets aren’t that expensive. This needs to change."

A few years ago, a section of highway in Beijing had a traffic jam that lasted ten days. This year, levels of air pollution in Beijing were the worst on record. Zhao says that’s thanks -- in part -- to cheap cars and cheaper license plates.

In Shanghai, on the other hand, a license plate typically costs as much as the car itself. And that’s meant Shanghai, which has a bigger, more affluent population than Beijing, has half as many cars and is often spared Beijing’s persistent toxic haze.

German business software company SAP has announced a push to hire autistic people. SAP says it's hoping other companies follow its lead.

Could the country’s largest public power utility really become private? President Obama floated the idea of selling the Tennessee Valley Authority in his budget, released last month. He started receiving pushback almost immediately.

Daniel Werfel starts Wednesday as the new acting administrator of the Internal Revenue Service, succeeding Steven T. Miller, who resigned under pressure last week. Here's everything you need to know about him.

It has become an American custom, like fireworks in July. Today Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gives his latest economic report to Congress. His testimony comes on the same day that Japan's central bank is indicating its intention to continue stimulus measures.

David Kelly, chief global strategist at JP Morgan funds, joins Marketplace Morning Report host David Brancaccio with the details.

In a nonpartisan race in which two Democrats were the top contenders, the city councilman has edged out City Controller Wendy Greuel.

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On Monday, a tornado with wind speeds above 200 miles per hour destroyed whole blocks in suburbs outside of the state’s capital, Oklahoma City. Officials say at least 24 people are dead. 

A massive recovery and relief effort including volunteers and donors from outside the Sooner State, began almost immediately.

Hours after the tornado touched down, Will Cleaver was on the road, driving a trailer full of supplies from Kansas City to Oklahoma. He is a cofounder of a group called Operation BBQ Relief, a nonprofit that prepares food after disasters like this one, including the tornado that hit Joplin, Mo.

“With the number of teams and volunteers we had show up, we were able to do 110,000 meals down there,” he says.

Operation BBQ Relief is one of many smaller volunteer organizations helping out in Moore, Okla. Bigger organizations are there too, including the American Red Cross.

People from all over want to help -- they’re willing to send money and donate their time. But after a disaster, there tends to be confusion about what is needed.

Caitra O’Neill runs Recovers.org, a company that to simplify that.

“We are able to create more efficiency in response by pushing people to what the greatest needs are before the community even knows what those needs are,” she says, adding it is important to learn from previous disasters and to involve locals.

A common misconceptions, she says, is that survivors need clothes. But for someone who has lost his home, that’s not at the top of the list.

The former congressman's career appeared to be over when he resigned in 2011 because of an extramarital sexting scandal and his lies about it. Now, he tells voters, "I've made some big mistakes. ... I hope I get a second chance to work for you." The Democratic primary is set for Sept. 10.

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Also: shameless book blurbs; new plays from Ayad Ahktar; and a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone draws a record price at auction.

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Officials think they've found all the survivors, and victims, of the massive tornado that devastated the community of Moore. The official death toll stands at 24. More than 230 people are said to have been injured.

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German business software company SAP has announced an effort to actively recruit and hire people with autism. The move comes after a successful pilot project in India in which SAP hired computer programmers who have autism, a developmental disorder that, among other things, can impair a person's ability to interact with others.

SAP, which says it wants autistic employees to make up 1 percent of its global workforce by 2020, is hoping other companies follow its lead.

"Only by employing people who think differently and spark innovation will SAP be prepared to handle the challenges of the 21st Century," said SAP executive Luisa Delgado.

The BBC's technology reporter Mark Gregory joins Marketplace Morning Report host David Brancaccio to discuss.

Executives with the country’s largest public power utility meet with the Obama Administration this week, after learning their agency might be up for sale.

President Obama floated the idea of selling the Tennessee Valley Authority in his budget, released last month. He started receiving pushback almost immediately.

“I think there’s somebody with a green eyeshade down there at the Office of Management and Budget who just thinks it’s a cool idea to talk about selling the Tennessee Valley Authority,” Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee, said in a recent hearing. “We don’t appreciate that approach.”

TVA originated during the Great Depression. It built hydroelectric dams, then coal and nuclear plants. The utility serves seven states and was conceived as a way to develop an impoverished region. It is fully self-supported through electric rates, and it has national security roles as the country’s sole source for tritium, needed in developing nuclear weapons.

There’s no firm plan to sell TVA, only for a “strategic review” that could result in privatization. But the very idea has done some damage, according to the agency.

The value of TVA’s bonds has dropped sharply. There’s doubt that the sale price would even cover TVA’s $25 billion of debt, and traders fear TVA may not be viable as a private company.

Sen. Alexander has been quizzing Energy Department officials anytime they appear before his committees. During a hearing last week, he asked the acting Energy secretary, Daniel Poneman, if he was consulted about the potential TVA sale.

Poneman admitted that he was not, but said, “the one thing that I do know is that any decision rolling forward that would consider what to do with the TVA would, of course, involve consultation with the Department of Energy.”

TVA officials have said the current business model is a good one, but they’re taking the idea of a potential sale seriously. They’ve committed to cooperating with the White House in good faith.

“I mean, I assume they were serious since they put it in the administration’s budget," says TVA senior vice president of policy Joe Hoagland.

TVA is celebrating its 80th birthday this week. The meetings in Washington may give a clue as to how many birthdays the utility has left.