KEY POINTS:
If Cho Seung-Hui wanted to start a war, he could not have gone to a better place than Roanoke Firearms.
Five weeks ago, the 23-year-old foreign student entered the shop and paid US$571 ($782) with a credit card for a Glock 19 semi-automatic pistol and a box of 50 cartridges.
He provided three different forms of identification and passed an additional security check carried out by the state police. The checks threw up no red flags. The entire transaction took no more than 20 minutes.
"I don't know anything about him. I just sold him the gun," said the store's owner, John Markell, standing behind one of the store's glass display cases full of matt-black weapons. "He had a Virginia driving licence, a chequebook and a Green Card. Everything was legit - he checked out ."
Yesterday, as the United States was struggling to come to terms with the bloody carnage that took place on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, 65km away, on the outskirts of Roanoke, the shop that sold Cho one of the two semi-automatic weapons he used with such devastating effect was doing swift business.
Markell, 58, said that officers from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms visited the store on the afternoon of the shooting but they had not troubled Markell further.
There had been no suggestion the shop, which sells 2500 guns a year, should be closed or that business should be suspended.
Markell said that because Cho was a foreign national, he was required to have three forms of identification with him rather than the normal two.
"We also rang up the state police. They ran it through the FBI computer," he said.
The Korean student, who was majoring in English, had bought a Glock, of which several were on display. But had he wanted something else, Cho would have had a vast array of weapons to choose from.
Yesterday, the shop had on display scores of semi-automatic handguns and revolvers for between US$300 and US$650. There were dozens of hunting knives and a range of paper targets.
For the more ambitious, a Steyr tactical rifle for US$2075 had been set up on the counter, while on the floor lay a Barrett .50 calibre sniper rifle, similar to one used by the US military. Behind more glass was a rack of AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifles. A packet of .45 "dum-dum" rounds was offered for US$15.75.
The shootings have already triggered new debate about the need for greater gun control. America has the highest rate of private gun ownership of any nation. About 30,000 people are killed by guns every year.
Mike Males, the author of Kids & Guns: How Politicians, Experts, and the Press Fabricate Fear of Youth, told the Institute for Public Accuracy in Washington: "I cannot find another country where mass shootings are so common outside of war or revolution, regardless of their other characteristics."
But many people say the incident may also lead to greater gun sales. Leane Anderson, a firearms instructor and gun shop owner, said purchases had soared since the killings.
"I think guns don't kill people, people kill people," she said. "I'm a strong believer in being able to protect yourself and your family."
Markell said that when Cho entered the store five weeks ago, his mind had not been on murder - even though he had filed off the weapons' identification numbers. He said he believed the student had bought ammunition more suitable for target shooting than for "self protection".
"I think that something pushed him over the edge. He did not buy that gun to do what he did," he said. "This was not pre-meditated five weeks ago ... You don't plan something [like this] five weeks in advance."
- INDEPENDENT
