We'll never know

Cho never should have had a gun. According to this story in the New York Times, Cho should have been barred from purchasing firearms legally by a Federal statute that Virgina apparently did not enforce. Because he was involuntarily committed for mental health treatment, and ruled a "danger to himself," federal law prohibited his buying firearms. That should have shown up on his background check, but because Virgina does not report mental health problems the way the statute requires, it never showed up. The law should have worked to prevent this.

He still could have bought the gun illegally I suppose, but I don't think he had the contacts to pull that off. He could have bought the gun at a gun show, but this still makes you wonder. If this extra road block had been put in place, would he have still be able to go through with it? We'll never know, but hopefully things will be changed so that this doesn't happen again. The fact that the law could have prevented him from buying guns legally gives you hope that legislation could work to prevent this from happening again.