A for effort, but. . .

From The Washington Post:

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said yesterday that he is considering an executive order to make sure that gun sellers have more information about the mental health of potential buyers, a move that would have kept Seung Hui Cho from purchasing the handguns he used to kill 32 people at Virginia Tech last week.

A court had found Cho to be dangerously mentally ill, but that information was not available in the computer systems used by the outlets that sold Cho the guns. Kaine's proposal would ensure that such mental health information be in the database.

"I think there's a way to tighten this and to get more data onto the system," Kaine (D) said. If that data had been available at the gun stores, Cho, who killed himself after the rampage April 16, would have been barred by federal law from buying the weapons.

Even lawmakers who have traditionally been reluctant to restrict gun ownership said that providing additional information would help keep guns out of the hands of the dangerously mentally ill.

"The murderer down at Virginia Tech never should have been able to purchase a gun," said Del. Mark L. Cole (R-Fredericksburg). "Someone who's declared a threat to themselves or others should not be able to purchase a firearm."

I have no problem with doing a better job of reporting on those who have been found to be dangerously mentally ill this would almost certainly not have stopped the Virginia Tech massacre.

Think about it. This was a college campus. Do you not think that Cho did not know, or could not have found out by hanging out at any bar frequented by V-Tech students for half an hour, where to buy ecstasy, meth or pot? Do you not suppose that drug dealers would either have a gun that they would be willing to sell or would know someone who did?

It was easier for Cho to get his guns from a gun store but he could have gotten them elsewhere and that is why gun control will never work.