Cho Seung-Hui, a student from South
Korea identified as the gunman who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech
University, is seen in this police handout released April 17,
2007.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
BEIJING, April 18
(Xinhuanet) -- The Virginia shooting has triggered worldwide criticism of
U.S. gun control laws Wednesday, with politicians and media unanimously
insisting that access to weapons increases the probability of shootings.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said "America's gun
culture was costing lives."
"We took action to limit the availability of guns and
we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the
United States would never become a negative in our country," said Howard.
After a gunman killed 35 people in a Tasmanian
tourist resort 11 years ago, Australia changed its gun laws to prohibit
automatic weapons and handguns.
Handguns are also banned in Britain. In Sweden and
Italy, firearm permits are strictly restricted.
"I think if this does prompt a serious and reflective
debate on gun issues and gun law in the States, then some good may come from
this woeful tragedy," said British Home Office Minister Tony McNulty, an alumni
of the university who graduated in 1982.
Editorials around the world also lashed out at the
availability of weapons to average residents in U.S.
"Only the names change ¡ª And the numbers," reads a
headline in the Times of London. "Why, we ask, do Americans continue to tolerate
gun laws and a culture that seems to condemn thousands of innocents to death
every year, when presumably, tougher restrictions, such as those in force in
European countries, could at least reduce the number?"
The French daily Le Monde said the regularity of mass
shootings across the Atlantic is a blotch on America's image.
The Swedish daily Goteborgs-Posten said without
access to weapons, "the killing at Virginia Tech might have been prevented."
"What exactly triggered the massacre in Virginia is
unclear, but the fundamental reason is often the perpetrator's psychological
problems in combination with access to weapons," it wrote.
Cho Seung-Hui, the suspect who killed 32 people and
himself Monday at Virginia Tech, paid 571 U.S. dollars for a 9 mm Glock 19
pistol just over a month ago, John Markell, the owner of Roanoke Firearms, said
Tuesday.
In U.S. Congress, a few Democrats have renewed the
call for gun control legislation, and more are expected to join them. But
Majority Leader Harry Reid cautioned Tuesday against a "rush to judgment" on
stricter gun control.
LOS ANGELES, April 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. community leaders
in Los Angeles on Tuesday urged Angelenos to view the Virginia Tech massacre as
an isolated crime committed by "one deranged individual."
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, who heads the Los Angeles
Urban Policy Roundtable, and other community leaders delivered a letter of
support to the Korean Consulate in an effort to reach out to Korean-American
leaders in Los Angeles, which has the largest Korean population outside Seoul.
Full story
BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhuanet) -- The gunman in the
Virginia Tech shooting is described as a "loner," whose "twisted" writing made
classmates suspect he might become a school shooter.
The police Tuesday identified the suspect of the deadliest
campus shooting in United States as Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old senior majoring
in English, who killed 32 people before taking his own life Monday. Full story
WASHINGTON, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The police Tuesday
identified the suspect of the Virginia Tech shooting as Cho Seung-Hui, a native
of South Korea, who killed 32 people before taking his own life Monday.
"He was a 23-year-old South Korean here in the U.S. as a
resident alien," Flinchum said at a press conference held at Blacksburg,
Virginia where the university is located. Full
story
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