Leaders in both parties voiced their sympathies, their outrage and their prayers in the aftermath of the shootings at Virginia Tech. Advocates of gun control legislation said they are hoping for something more — a reopening of the legislative debate over regulating guns. Many of them had expected that the shootings at Columbine High School in 1999 would transform the politics of gun control; in May 2000, the Million Mom March rallied in the nation's capital with a... (GunPolicy.org)

A well-placed law enforcement source tells CBS News the weapons used in the massacre were a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun and .22-caliber pistol. Both are readily available in gun shops across the United States and particularly accessible in the commonwealth of Virginia, which recently earned a C-minus rating by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. "It's much too easy to get guns in the state of Virginia," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Center. That's... (GunPolicy.org)

It has been more than a decade of progress for the National Rifle Association and other proponents of looser gun regulations, who saw their opposition wither in the face of sweeping Democratic losses in 1994 and the loss of the White House in 2000. But when interviewed last year about the decline of the issue's prominence, advocates on both sides suggested that an especially violent event — like the horrific shootings at Virginia Tech — could cause a reversal of... (GunPolicy.org)

WASHINGTON — 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... (GunPolicy.org)

Politicians raced to voice their horror at Monday's Virginia campus massacre, said to be the deadliest single gun rampage in US history. But if history is anything to go by, expressions of outrage will lead to little in terms of tighter gun control. President George W. Bush was "horrified", his spokeswoman said. Gun control advocates pointed out, however, that a 1994 federal ban on assault weapons expired in 2004 but has not been renewed under Mr Bush's watch. "There... (GunPolicy.org)

ST. LOUIS — The guns brought the butter to St. Louis this weekend, as the National Rifle Association produced the largest convention ever here, and perhaps the NRA's largest anywhere. The NRA was aiming for 60,000 participants, and organizers say the convention surpassed that, perhaps making it the most highly attended NRA convention ever. Final numbers won't be available until today, but restaurants, bars and say business boomed from the turnout. The convention... (GunPolicy.org)

At least 33 people were killed at Virginia Tech Monday in the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history, but such incidents have occurred at schools and universities elsewhere in the world. Here is a list of some from recent years: December 1989, Canada: Marc Lepine, 25, stormed Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique, killing 14 women. Four men and eight other women were injured before Lepine turned the gun on himself. March 1996, Britain: A gunman burst into an elementary... (GunPolicy.org)