LONDON — At 9:35 a.m. on a March day in 1996, a disgruntled former scout leader walked into a primary school gym in Dunblane, Scotland, with four guns and killed 16 children and their teacher in Britain's worst mass shooting. The crime still causes Britons to recoil when they recall the victims, many of them only 5 years old. That rampage, with guns purchased legally — as were those used in last week's killings at Virginia Tech — led to a near-total ban on... (GunPolicy.org)

UNITED NATIONS — The former U.N. human rights chief hopes that last week's massacre at Virginia Tech will generate U.S. support for a global treaty to control the international small arms trade. Mary Robinson, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002, noted Monday that the U.S. was the only country to oppose a U.N. General Assembly resolution that could lead to the first international convention on regulating the trade in small arms and light... (GunPolicy.org)

NEW YORK — The gunman who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech University did not purchase ammunition used in the rampage on eBay's online auction site, eBay said on Monday, refuting published reports. The company said Cho Seung-Hui, who also killed himself, did in recent months buy empty ammunition clips and a gun holster on eBay. He also sold other items including books and tickets to sporting events. "Empty ammunition clips and gun holsters are unregulated items... (GunPolicy.org)

On their final night alive, Kevin and Joni Park checked into a bluff-top bungalow at one of the West Coast's toniest resorts packing a gun and a bag of ammunition. The Mission Viejo couple used a fake name, police said, and paid for their $2,200-a-night lodgings in cash. They brought piles of money and boxes of mysterious documents. They had come to Laguna Beach's Montage Resort & Spa on Saturday night to discuss a vexing "business" problem, the couple's daughter said... (GunPolicy.org)

WASHINGTON — Supporters of gun ownership rights in the US are claiming that strict controls introduced in Britain after the Dunblane massacre have increased violence because people are unable to defend themselves. The American gun lobby has been put on the back foot by last week's shooting of 32 students at Virginia Tech but is still preparing to defend itself against any effort to impose tighter restrictions. Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House of... (GunPolicy.org)

A former Japanese member of the French Foreign Legion and his wife were arrested on suspicion of possessing firearms that were likely smuggled into the country, police said Monday. Three others, including a company president in Kanagawa Prefecture, were arrested for allegedly buying and possessing the weapons. Police said they have also obtained an arrest warrant for another man suspected of buying a handgun from the former soldier, they said. Eleven handguns,... (GunPolicy.org)

Diane Glass — Every time violent tragedy strikes involving handguns, pundits take to the air blathering about the need for more gun control as if it was the panacea. In reality, it's a cheap answer that makes everyone feel better, like the warming effects of a cheap shot of whiskey. The only people who abide by gun control laws are law-abiding citizens. Anyone so inclined can get a hold of illegal goods as easily as I could walk through a park and buy a dime bag of... (GunPolicy.org)

Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell called Monday for changes in state law to close the gap that allowed Seung-Hui Cho to buy the guns he used in a shooting rampage on the Virginia Tech campus. The law allowed Cho to purchase two handguns despite his mental problems because he was not involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital, McDonnell said. However, many believe Cho should have been stopped by a broader federal law that prohibits gun sales to anyone... (GunPolicy.org)