Modest gun-control measure passes US lower house

Jun 13, 2007, 20:55 GMT

Washington - Spurred by the Virginia Tech shootings, the US House of Representatives voted Wednesday to improve a national database meant to prevent criminals and the mentally ill from buying guns.

The measure - also meant to 'reduce delays for law-abiding gun purchasers' - passed the Democratic-led lower house on a voice vote with broad support from President George W Bush's Republicans. The administration's top health official welcomed the initiative.

Reflecting US states' primacy over gun control, the measure encourages them to provide the names of people who should be barred from buying handguns to the database kept by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Action on gun control is notoriously difficult in the US because rules vary from state to state. But the April 16 shootings at the Blacksburg, Virginia, university, the deadliest spree in US history, shocked the nation.

Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-Hui, 23, killed 32 people after buying two handguns. He was not listed in the database, even though a Virginia judge had ruled in 2005 that Cho posed a danger to himself or others.

'As the Virginia Tech shooting reminded us, there is an urgent national need to improve the background check system,' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said in a statement.

A government report ordered by Bush after the shootings faulted states Wednesday for failing to provide up-to-date information for federal background checks. Accurate data is 'essential' to keeping guns from falling into the wrong hands, the report said.

'We do need to do a better job in being able to have complete and accurate information into the instant check,' US health secretary Mike Leavitt said.

The Bush administration views the House measure as 'a very important set of goals, and we're broadly supportive of it,' Leavitt told reporters.

'Obviously, there's a long ways to go before the bill would reach his desk,' he added.