The man responsible for the deadliest shooting incident in U.S. history was able to obtain his weapons easily and quickly, leading some to question yet again whether gun control laws in the U.S. need review.
Cho Seung-Hui, 23, used two simple handguns to kill 32 people at Virginia Tech before turning one of the guns on himself.
He bought a Glock 9mm pistol in March for US$571. The second gun, a .22 calibre Walther P22 semi-automatic pistols, was bought within the last week.
Under Virginia law, both sales were quick and legal.
Daniel Vice with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington says it's disturbingly easy to buy a gun in Virginia.
"In Virginia, you can go to a gun show and buy a semiautomatic pistol or even a military-style assault rifle with no background check, no record of sale, you don't even have to give your name," he told Canada AM.
"So our leaders need to answer why is it so easy for dangerous people to get access to these high fire-power weapons."
Virginia, home to the National Rifle Association, has some of the fewest restrictions on owning weapons. Anyone over the age of 12 may own and possess a rifle or shotgun. Those 18 and older may own a handgun.
Permits are not required, but without one, only a single handgun can be bought per month. There is no wait time or cooling-off period. No training is required to buy, use or carry a concealed gun, provided the user has a permit to do so.
Convicted felons are not allowed to own weapons, and buyers' names are checked against state and federal databases before a weapon is sold.
In Cho's case, a background check was done, but since he had no criminal record, he was able to buy his guns with ease.
The shop where he bought the Glock could have blocked the purchase if Cho had been acting suspiciously. But Cho "didn't act fidgety; he just acted normal," Roanoke Firearms owner John Markell said he was told by the employee who completed the sale.
"It was a very unremarkable sale,'' said Markell. "He was a nice, clean-cut college kid. We won't sell a gun if we have any idea at all that a purchase is suspicious.''
About one-third of U.S. households reported having a gun, according to a 2001 government survey. Vice believes it is easy access to guns in the U.S. that makes shooting rampages like the one this week so much more common in his country.
"Many countries have so-called bad people, people who want to do harm. But America is unique in having a rash of these school shootings and the link between them is access to firearms," he says.
"We need to ask: are we doing everything possible to stop these shootings from happening? The answer is clearly no. Our nation's leaders will need to address that and step forward and answer whether it's the American people, the majority of which support strong gun laws, or the gun lobby that they're responsible to."
While Virginia's gun rules may seem lax compared to those in Canada, the state is far from the least restrictive. The Brady Center, which grades states on the aggressiveness of their gun laws, gave the state a C-minus in 2005, while 32 other states earned grades of D or F.
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein believes it's time to renew the call for gun control legislation.
"I believe this will reignite the dormant effort to pass commonsense gun regulations in this nation,'' Feinstein said Tuesday.
But Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, says gun rights advocates are simply too influential to allow a tightening of gun control laws. Groups that support gun rights are among the best-funded,and most effective lobbyists in U.S. politics.
"It's a regional thing, it's a cultural thing,'' Rangel said.
He says that even in areas where 85 per cent of the people support more gun restrictions, the 15 per cent minority is far more active and outspoken.
Many believe that the problem that led to Monday's massacre was not too easy access to guns, but laws that restrict gun owners from carrying concealed weapons on university campuses.
The second-largest U.S. gun lobbying group, the Gun Owners of America, says if students or faculty had been allowed to carry guns on campus, they might have been able to stop the killer.
"The latest school shooting at Virginia Tech demands an immediate end to the gun-free zone law, which leaves the nation's schools at the mercy of madmen," said Larry Pratt, the group's director. "It is irresponsibly dangerous to tell citizens that they may not have guns at schools."
While some predict that the Virginia Tech massacre will increase debate about gun control, many doubt that it will result in any legislative changes.
Even the April 1999 shootings at Colorado's Columbine High School, in which two students killed 12 classmates and a teacher before committing suicide, failed to generate any changes at the federal level.
And the only regulation changed in Colorado was the adoption of a measure requiring background checks at gun shows.
