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Thorough Review Set Of Va. Tech
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The commission will be supported by as many as 10 staff members from TriData, a division of Arlington County-based System Planning Corp. The company has conducted more than 60 after-action reviews, including one after the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. Virginia Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R) has assigned a staff member to provide legal advice.
Massengill said most of the panel's meetings will be open. The commission is creating a Web site and mailing address so the public can submit feedback. Several of the meetings will be in Blacksburg, he said.
Although Kaine's office has sought to manage expectations of what the commission can accomplish, Massengill said that he expects the panel's findings could help shape state policy in a number of areas.
The shootings are likely to rekindle the debate over gun control in Virginia, which is home to the National Rifle Association and which gun control advocates say has among the least-stringent gun laws in the country.
Cho legally bought .22-caliber and 9mm pistols, including one obtained from a Wisconsin gun dealer, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in the months before the shooting, even though a court had found him to be dangerously mentally ill.
Unlike some states, Virginia has no waiting period before purchasing a handgun, nor does it require registration. State law does limit purchasers to one gun a month.
Residents 21 or older can apply for a permit to carry a concealed weapon in Virginia, but colleges and university officials can prohibit guns on campus. Because Virginia Tech bars students and faculty from carrying guns, opponents of gun control say Cho would have been stopped sooner had more people on campus been armed.
"We don't plan to argue the Second Amendment, but we are certainly going to look at the issues that are there under current law," Massengill said. "If we see something that obviously needs a legislative fix, we will be making that recommendation to the governor."
House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) said members of the General Assembly will ultimately be charged with reviewing the state's gun laws. But Griffith said he welcomes the panel's advice.
"The number one objective they need to do is to make a finding of fact of what could have had an impact on preventing this," Griffith said.
