KEY POINTS:
A visiting professor from the United States university where a gunman killed 32 people and himself says the incident is likely to fuel debate about liberalising gun ownership.
Rien Visser, a New Zealander who works at Virginia Tech University, is on a three-month Erskine Fellow visit to Canterbury
University and today he outlined the likely reactions to the grisly shootings.
Professor Visser said the gun control debate in the US was divided between those who wanted stricter control and a vocal number who believed everyone should carry a weapon to defend themselves against the kind of attack that took place at the US university.
While the right to bear arms may have led to fewer burglary crimes it also gave rise to more incidents of mass murder, he said.
"Virginia is still a southern state and has a southern state mentality. There are many Americans who believe that if they were more liberal and there were more guns then these incidents wouldn't get out of control," he told reporters.
"A lot of people believe that the terrorist hijackings of 9/11 could have been prevented if passengers were carrying firearms. That's their logic."
Prof Visser said there had already been a debate about whether or not students should be able to bear arms. Most teaching staff were uneasy about the prospect and believed any increase in weapons would only lead to more incidents.
He said he would be telling Americans about the type of gun laws New Zealanders abide by. He had a firearms licence himself.
Virginia Tech is located in the small town of Blacksburg, Virginia, with a resident population of about 20,000, plus another 26,000 students during term time. It was the kind of place where people left their doors unlocked and their keys in the car.
There had only been some minor incidents involving weapons recently.
Prof Visser said he had generally felt safe on campus at Virginia Tech and he and his wife Anne planned to return soon with their nine-month-old son, Noa, when he would resume his teaching position as associate professor of forestry.
The chairman of the Forestry Board of Studies at Canterbury University, Dr Hamish Cochrane, said he had spoken with the family of a Canterbury University student who was currently studying at Virginia Tech and was not involved in the incident.
Virginia Tech geology professor Rick Law, who runs a student exchange programme with Massey University, said today from Blacksburg that everyone at the university was struggling to cope with the enormity of the tragedy.
"What can I say, it is disbelief as much as anything."
He said the campus was evacuated late in the morning (about 4am New Zealand time).
"They clearly wanted to clear as much of the campus as possible.
"I don't know who any of the victims are yet. They are clearly not releasing any names until next of kin had been notified. It could well be tomorrow before names start to be released," he said.
Prof Law was about four buildings from Norris Hall "teaching in a class when this was all erupting this morning" and heard nothing.
He said from his home today he was sitting there shaking his head in disbelief.
"We just have got to go on, I suppose," he said.
- NZPA