April 18, 2007

It's too early to determine whether different gun laws could have averted the deaths of 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus Monday. Like most such shootings, the rampage was carried out by an apparently disturbed individual who possibly could not have been stopped by any legislation. But it's not too soon to wonder whether we are doing everything we can to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, and perhaps avert a similar tragedy. We would be derelict, in fact, if we failed to do so.

On that score, there is clearly work to be done in both Springfield and Washington. Congress should start by overturning a spending bill amendment that since 2003 has prevented the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from sharing most information about gun traces from police agencies. The ban inexplicably and inexcusably prevents police from using the data -- which is collected by departments across the country -- to help them figure out where illegal guns are coming from and to go after gun traffickers.

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