Naturally, this is a tragedy and a time of mourning.
I'm (unfortunately) fairly ignorant of the ins and outs of this story other than what happened: I don't know if he had any psychological problems, if he bought them on the way or if he had them bought for a long time, and so on.
Are there methods in place to protect people from crimes? For example, can a gun store owner refuse to sell guns to a potential customer if they have suspicions about whether or not the guns are going to be used in a crime?
If I recall correctly, gun purchasers have to be screened in some way, like having a psych test, am I right?
My own uninformed, ignorant opinion as an outsider who knows nothing about American gun laws is that gun ownership should be quite stringent to avoid these things, although I imagine it is anyway so this is probably a redundant statement in itself. However, as a Briton I would not say that the British model is a good one and think it's ridiculous: we can't have tasers, knuckledusters, and a long list of anything that can be considered as a weapon, even if the weapon is in self-defence. I honestly don't think I'd be surprised if they banned mace.
However, despite all these stringent anti-gun laws, I know for a fact that I could actually get access to a gun, probably in less than an hour, if I called around a bit, and it's not even that expensive to get one. An acquaintance of mine said he knows a guy who knows a guy who could get one for about £85 (about $130 US). This was a few years ago, mind you, but I doubt things have changed that much.
All the British model does is stop the people who're almost not going to use a gun from having a gun to defend themselves when someone breaks into their house with a gun.
So... I dunno. :cover: