As the smoke clears from the massacre at Virginia Tech, a couple of things have become apparent. First, the gunman, who had a history of mental illness, should have been prohibited under federal law from buying the guns he used in the attack, and second, as horrific as the tragedy was, it is not that uncommon. It is estimated that every year in the U.S., 1,000 homicides are committed by people with mental illness. It's not supposed to be that way. As correspondent... (GunPolicy.org)

ZUG, Switzerland — Evening rush hour at the train station: men in suits, a woman carrying a cello, kids lugging snowboards. Markus Marschall, a university engineering student, walked through the bustle wearing an orange T-shirt, leather jacket and aviator sunglasses — and a Sturmgewehr 90 automatic assault rifle slung over his shoulder. "It's perfectly normal," said Marschall, 25, who carried the olive-green rifle, issued to him by the Swiss military, on a canvas... (GunPolicy.org)

OTTAWA — Former prime minister Jean Chretien says he was shocked to discover how easy it was for the student-killer at Virginia Tech to obtain guns under U.S. law. In an interview, Chretien expressed astonishment at the permissive gun culture in the United States, while defending the measures his government introduced in Canada. A legal loophole in Virginia allowed Cho Seung-Hui to obtain weapons despite having already been ordered to undergo outpatient... (GunPolicy.org)

SALT LAKE CITY — Brent Tenney says he feels pretty safe when he goes to class at the University of Utah, but he takes no chances. He brings a loaded 9 mm semiautomatic with him every day. "It's not that I run around scared all day long, but if something happens to me, I do want to be prepared," said the 24-year-old business major, who has a concealed-weapons permit and takes the handgun everywhere but church. After the massacre at Virginia Tech that left 33 dead,... (GunPolicy.org)

NEW YORK — Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York has questioned a Wichita television station's refusal to air a commercial that is part of his anti-gun campaign. The ad features a Minnesota police chief saying that federal legislation is keeping him from getting information about where guns in his community are coming from and who is buying them. CBS affiliate KWCH of Wichita said the ad is misleading. Another station in Wichita, NBC affiliate KSN, also decided not to... (GunPolicy.org)

Americans have been arguing over what to do about the dangers posed by guns since the dawn of the 19th Century, when the nation experienced its first gun violence crisis and enacted the first comprehensive gun control laws. The fact that President George W. Bush and U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., each have invoked the Second Amendment in the aftermath of the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech only underscores how ignorant our politicians are of the complex history of... (GunPolicy.org)

The Directorate of State Security Services (SSS) has uncovered a huge firearms syndicate, whose tentacles are spread across several states of the federation, and has the scion of a first class chief in Plateau state as its ring leader. Operatives of the SSS confirmed to Sunday Trust in Abuja that Henry Pam, son of Victor Pam, Gbong Gwom Jos and Chairman of the Plateau state Traditional Council, was arrested on Saturday, the 9th of December last year for illegal... (GunPolicy.org)

A New Jersey congressman may hold the deciding vote on whether a House subcommittee will reject an absurd provision that severely restricts the police from obtaining valuable information about the source of guns used in crimes. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen of Morris County is the ranking Republican member of a House Appropriations subcommittee that will consider the restriction, probably next month. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and more than 200 other mayors,... (GunPolicy.org)

The tragedy at Virginia Tech, with a mentally disturbed person gunning down 32 of America's finest — intelligent working people with futures ahead of them — puts once again into focus for Americans the phenomenon of an armed society. The likely underestimate of how many guns are wandering around America runs at 240 million in a population of about 300 million. What was clear at Virginia Tech is that at least two of those guns were in the wrong hands. When people... (GunPolicy.org)