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The concrete news developments in the Virginia Tech story consisted of tying up loose ends about how the killer armed himself. On NBC, which uses Cho Seung-Hui to identify the suicidal gunman, Pete Williams examined the extent of his arsenal: police found 17 discarded bullet magazines at the crime scene, meaning that at least 200 shots were fired in his spree. His bullets were hollow pointed, "generally considered more lethal" and he practiced his marksmanship at a range in Roanoke Va last month. On CBS, which uses Seung-Hui Cho, the killer's dormitory neighbor Karan Grewal talked to Sharyn Alfonsi. He described how Cho's plot seemed to begin in February, when he started working out at the gym and sitting in the common room "silently watching his roommates."
On ABC, which also goes by Seung-Hui Cho, Jake Tapper examined how Cho could legally buy his guns despite a court-ordered diagnosis of mental illness. Tapper pointed out that federal law prevents the sale of firearms to anyone found "mentally defective" but leaves it to each state to define the term. Virginia has one of the narrowest definitions in the nation: refusing sales to those who have been committed as in-patients but permitting guns for out-patients. Advocates for the mentally ill oppose broadening the ban as creating "a greater stigma."
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