Questions About Gun Laws Surround VT Shooting

Update:WNBC reports that Cho Seung Hui sent a "box containing a manifesto of sorts, photographs and other material" (including videos) to NBC News. NBC News received it today and president Steve Capus turned the box over the FBI, but MSNBC says that the box was sent between the two shootings.

The package included a long, “rambling, manifesto-like statement embedded with a series of photographs,” Capus said. The material is “hard-to-follow ... disturbing, very disturbing — very angry, profanity-laced,” he said.

It does not include any images of the shootings Monday, but it does include “vague references,” including “things like ‘This didn’t have to happen,’ ” Capus said in an interview late Wednesday afternoon.

Capus said gloved NBC security personnel handled the package very carefully as soon as it arrived. The network immediately called the FBI and turned it over.

The package bore a U.S. Postal Service stamp recording that it had been received at a Virginia post office at 9:01 a.m. ET Monday, about an hour and 45 minutes after Cho shot two people in the West Ambler Johnston residence hall on the Virginia Tech campus and shortly before Cho entered Norris Hall, where he killed 30 more people.

“We probably would have received the mail earlier had it not been that he had the wrong address and ZIP code,” Capus said.

NBC News anchor Brian Williams writes on his Daily Nightly blog, "NBC News has indeed received what I would call a "multimedia manifesto" from the gunman. We received it today, and immediately handed it over to Federal law enforcement authorities. We are still going over our own copy -- its a lot of material -- we are talking with law enforcement, our own standards people -- and Pete Williams, our Justice Correspondent, will join me live on the broadcast to go through the material."

There is currently a prayer vigil outside City Hall for the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting (until 5:30PM) and funeral services for one of the victims, engineering professor Liviu Librescu, is were held in Brooklyn today.

Previous:
As the Virginia Tech community, state of Virginia, and rest of the country reels and begins to heal from Monday's tragic shooting, questions about gun laws are coming to the forefront. ABC News reported that the owner of Roanoke Firearms, where Cho Seung Hui purchased a gun, said this was the fifth time a gun he sold has been used in a homicide. While Cho was able to buy a gun easily due to his clean record, Mayor Bloomberg's campaign against illegal guns (which includes stores that sell them illegally) is getting more attention.

Last year, the administration's gun stings, in states such as Virginia, showed dealers willing to sell guns to people who don't fill out paperwork - instead, someone else fills out the paperwork for them. Baruch College's David Birdsell, dean of the School of Public Affairs, tells the NY Sun, "When you have an attack that gets this kind of attention that victimizes young people in what should be a safe environment, people think about safety and availability of guns. For all the most horrific and tragic reasons, it will help Mayor Bloomberg's campaign."

The counterargument from gun rights-groups is that if students were armed, then situations like this could be avoided, a sentiment echoed by an Asian Virginia Tech student - and gun collector - who spoke to ABC News about initial suspicions that he was the shooter. Mayor Bloomberg will be in NJ today to discuss Mayors Against Illegal Guns, but the Politcker reports that his comments have only been that the situation was a tragedy and that he's continuing to "keep guns out of the hands of criminals." The statement on the Mayors Against Illegal Guns website from Mayor Bloomberg and Boston's Mayor Thomas Menino reads, "The rampage at Virginia Tech is a heinous crime that has shaken the whole nation. The families of all those affected are in our hearts and in our prayers."

All the reports suggest that many people were aware of Cho's isolated and anti-social behavior.

Roommates noted he barely spoke, and Cho apparently had a history of stalking women. A professor even tried to help him - from the Times:

Lucinda Roy, who taught Mr. Cho in a poetry workshop in the fall of 2005, said that in October of that year he submitted a piece of writing that was so disturbing that she contacted the campus police, counseling services, student affairs and officials in her department. Ms. Roy described the writing as a “veiled threat rather than something explicit.”

University officials told her that she could drop Mr. Cho from the class. Or, they said, she could tutor him individually, and she agreed to do so three times from October to December 2005. During those sessions, she said in an interview, he always wore sunglasses and a baseball cap pulled low.

“He seemed to be crying behind his sunglasses,” she said.

Ms. Roy said she had been so nervous about taking him on as an individual student that she worked out a code with her assistant: if she mentioned the name of a dead professor, her assistant would know it was time to call security.

Parents of Virginia Tech students want the campus police chief to resign, as it turns out the two hour delay in letting students know about the shootings was due to what the Times headlines a "bad lead" - the boyfriend (who attends another college) of one of the first victims was known to go to the gun firing range. Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine has asked a former state police superintendent to lead the investigation, but Virginia Tech's procedures have raised questions for other colleges. The Columbia Spectator notes that now uniformed security will swipe ID cards instead of students and has an editorial asking Columbia president Lee Bollinger to provide a response plan. The question of counseling and how much support a college can provide will also likely enter the debate.

More: The President attended Virginia Tech's convocation and said, "In this time of anguish, I hope you know that people all over this country are thinking about you, and asking God to provide comfort for all who have been affected." The Roanoke Times covers the vigil held at Virginia Tech's Drillfield. The NY Times has an interactive feature showing the victims of the shooting.

Photograph of a candlelight vigil at the Virginia Tech campus from Virginia Tech's Hokie Sports