The guns were sold in Virginia, the lives taken violently just a few miles away. It is the guns bought there and used for crimes elsewhere that have long had mayors around the United States angry.

With a credit card and a lie, Cho Seung-Hui was able to walk out of a pawnshop and a gun store with the handguns he later used to slaughter 32, and then kill himself. The state's background check failed to turn up his history of mental illness in each of the two sales.