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Buying Guns, Ammo Easy Under Virginia's Lenient Laws •
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Eight Years After Columbine
The New York Times | Editorial
Tuesday 17 April 2007
Yesterday's mass shooting at Virginia Tech - the worst in American history
- is another horrifying reminder that some of the gravest dangers Americans
face come from killers at home armed with guns that are frighteningly easy to
obtain.
Not much is known about the gunman, who killed himself, or about his motives
or how he got his weapons, so it is premature to draw too many lessons from
this tragedy. But it seems a safe bet that in one way or another, this will
turn out to be another instance in which an unstable or criminally minded individual
had no trouble arming himself and harming defenseless people.
In the wake of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre - in which two
alienated students plotted for months before killing 12 students, a teacher
and themselves - public school administrators focused heavily on spotting
warning signs early enough to head off tragedy.
As the investigation of the Virginia Tech shootings unfolds in coming days,
it will be important to ascertain whether there were any hints of the tragedy
to come and what might be done to head off such horrors in the future. Campuses
are inherently open communities, and Virginia Tech has some 26,000 students
using hundreds of buildings over 2,600 acres. It is not easy to guarantee a
safe haven.
The investigations will also need to look into the response by the campus and
local police. The initial shootings killed two students in a dormitory around
7:15 a.m., prompting a 911 call and a police response. Tragically, the police
assumed that was the end of it and thought the shooter might have left the campus
and even the state. Two hours later a second, more lethal round of shooting
claimed some 30 lives in an engineering building across campus. If the same
gunman was responsible for both incidents, the police will have to explain why
they failed to intercept his second foray or did not lock down the whole campus.
Our hearts and the hearts of all Americans go out to the victims and their
families. Sympathy was not enough at the time of Columbine, and eight years
later it is not enough. What is needed, urgently, is stronger controls over
the lethal weapons that cause such wasteful carnage and such unbearable loss.
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Buying Guns, Ammo Easy Under Virginia's Lenient Laws
Agence France-Presse
Tuesday 17 April 2007
Buying a handgun or rifle is relatively easy in Virginia, where a gunman slaughtered
at least 30 people at a university Monday, but the state's gun control laws
are not the most lenient in the United States.
Virginia laws allow any state resident over 18 to buy a firearm, including
assault weapons, if they pass a check of any possible criminal background against
state and federal databases.
According to the Brady Campaign lobby for gun control, the state merits a C-minus
on a scale of A to F for the strength of its gun control laws, with 32 of the
50 states ranked D or F.
Buying and owning a gun in Virginia does not require a permit, but without
a gun permit only one handgun purchase per month is allowed, and there is no
waiting period to acquire the gun.
Those with licenses can buy more than one gun during one month. A non-state
resident has to wait 10 days to acquire a weapon, or until he or she gets a
positive report from the state police.
The law is broad enough to allow people to buy assault guns and magazines without
limit such as AK-47s and Uzis, the Brady report points out on its website.
"Assault weapons are as easy to buy as hunting rifles," it says.
The state maintains "no restriction on the sale or possession of rapid-fire
ammunition magazines that can fire up to 100 bullets without reloading."
The state does restrict people convicted of felony crimes from possessing firearms,
and forbids giving or selling handguns to minors under 18, except from one family
member to another.
But selling rifles and shotguns to children over 12 is permitted.
In one controversial loophole, people can buy weapons at second hand gun shows
without waiting periods or background checks. Critics of the laws say it allows
people to pay cash and take the gun away with no way to track them.
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