Monday, April 30, 2007

IT'S A CHILLING thought: Seung Hui Cho's rampage at Virginia Tech might have been avoided but for what might have seemed until recently a minor flaw in Virginia state policy.

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An impeccable federal background check database would make it more difficult for dangerous people to illegally obtain guns. That is an important step. Congress also can do more to stop the determined ex-convict or would-be mass murderer from bargaining for a cheap handgun on a street corner. Among other things, rejecting the so-called Tiahrt amendment and similar measures that restrict local police departments' access to federal gun-tracing information would help investigators across the country shut down the rogue gun sellers who account for a huge majority of the firearms used in crime.