Late in the 18th century, with one nervous eye on political turmoil at home and the other on the tumult in revolutionary France, the United States Congress ratified the second amendment to the constitution: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." In the age of Washington, Jefferson and Madison, that made sense. America would maintain no standing army but, if... (GunPolicy.org)

New Zealand gun laws would have intercepted someone as disturbed as the Virginia Tech killer — but the black market is awash with weapons. In Virginia, Cho Seung-Hui went to a gun shop, paid $780 and had a Glock semi-automatic pistol within 20 minutes. In New Zealand, it would have taken nine months and proof that the buyer was a collector or genuinely belonged to a gun club. Dealer Greg Carvell of Small Arms International said that in 11 years he had seen only one... (GunPolicy.org)

Una nueva masacre en un centro educativo en EE.UU. — el más cruento incidente de este tipo en la historia del país — vuelve a generar la discusión de si es imperativo regular o restringir el porte de armas. Ya en el pasado, la historia se manifestó de la misma forma: una masacre inesperada, expresiones de estupor, condolencias por parte de la Casa Blanca a los familiares y víctimas, el debate en los medios de prensa sobre el uso de las armas y el cabildeo de... (GunPolicy.org)

WASHINGTON — As the nation mourns the 32 students killed at Virginia Tech last week, the issue of gun control has resurfaced, as it has in the wake of similar mass shootings. This time, the debate is expected to be muted, and political analysts, gun control advocates and politicians predict no further restrictions on guns will result. The main reason: the political power of those who favor gun rights, led by the National Rifle Association. For instance, when... (GunPolicy.org)

PHOENIX — Thousands of shoppers packed more than two dozen gun shows across the United States on Saturday, as the domestic arms trade kept up a brisk pace after the worst shooting rampage in modern American history. Traders at firearms fairs in Arizona and Georgia hawked weapons ranging from high-powered handguns to assault rifles just days after a disturbed student, Seung-Hui Cho, ran amok at Virginia Tech university, shooting dead 32 people and then himself. The... (GunPolicy.org)

NEW YORK — Mass public shootings have become such a part of American life in recent decades that the most dramatic of them can be evoked from the nation's collective memory in a word or two: Luby's. Jonesboro. Columbine. And now, Virginia Tech. Since Aug. 1, 1966, when Charles Whitman climbed a 27-story tower on the University of Texas campus and started picking people off, at least 100 Americans have gone on shooting sprees. And all through those years, the same... (GunPolicy.org)

WASHINGTON — The nation is profoundly split along gender, racial and other lines over gun violence and what the government should do to control it, despite near-universal sorrow over the Virginia Tech shootings, an AP-Ipsos poll has found. Women and minorities are far likelier than men and whites to view gun violence as a major problem, to worry about being shot and to want stricter firearms laws, said the survey, which was taken after the killings. Fault lines also... (GunPolicy.org)

NEW YORK — The guns were sold in Virginia, the lives taken so violently just a few miles away. It is the guns bought there and used for crimes elsewhere that have long had mayors nationwide angry. With a credit card and a lie, Seung-Hui Cho was able to walk out of a pawnshop and a gun store with the handguns he later used to slaughter 32, and then kill himself. The state's background check failed to turn up his history of mental illness in each of the two... (GunPolicy.org)

BLACKSBURG, Virginia — The Internet activities of the Virginia Tech gunman provided more insight Saturday into how he may have plotted for the rampage, with revelations that he bought two ammunition clips on eBay. Seung-Hui Cho purchased two empty clips about three weeks before the attack in which Cho killed 32 people and himself. The clips were designed for one of the two types of handguns he used. Cho, 23, also used the account to sell items ranging from Hokies... (GunPolicy.org)

Years ago when I was the Star's correspondent in Washington, I was often asked by Americans what I thought was the biggest difference between them and Canadians. Our love of hockey and their love of guns, I would quickly reply. Invariably, they would laugh and say something like: "Yeah, you're right." The memory of those comments came back to me as I watched and read the predictable fallout to Monday's tragedy at Virginia Tech in which 32 people were shot to death... (GunPolicy.org)

That the Virginia Tech massacre did not occasion a widespread round of political hand-wringing over gun control is, as one newspaper put it, a silent testimony to how far the gun-control debate has shifted in the past decade and a half. Yes, the usual suspects have attempted to use the murder spree on campus as evidence of the danger of guns in America. But as unlikely a combination of leaders from Harry Reid to George Bush has been as one in warning we should avoid a... (GunPolicy.org)

An Emmanuel College professor has been fired after re-enacting the Virginia Tech massacre in his classroom in order to air a pro-gun viewpoint that offended students at the Catholic liberal arts school, the professor charged yesterday. Nicholas Winset said he was terminated and permanently barred from campus following a Wednesday lecture in which he dramatized the massacre to show that deranged gunman Cho Seung-Hui could have been stopped if another student had been... (GunPolicy.org)

People in Bahrain are being urged to support a campaign calling for arms control around the world, three weeks after the shooting of nightclub security guard Abbas Ali Salman Al Shakhoori and just days after a high school massacre in the US. More than 40,000 text messages have already been sent to residents asking them to help with efforts to introduce an international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), in what is said to be the biggest SMS campaign in Bahrain. UN... (GunPolicy.org)