Massacre - The Dealer's Defence: 'I just sold him the gun'

If Cho Seung-Hui wanted to start a war, he could not have gone to a better place than Roanoke Firearms.

Five weeks ago, the 23-year-old foreign student entered the shop and paid $570 (£284) with a credit card for a Glock 9mm semi-automatic pistol and a box of 50 cartridges. He provided three different forms of identification and passed an additional security check carried out by the state police. The checks threw up no red flags. The entire transaction took no more than 20 minutes.

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"I don't know anything about him. I just sold him the gun," the store's owner, John Markell, told The Independent, standing behind one of the store's glass display cases packed full of matt-black weapons. "He had a Virginia driving licence, a cheque book and a green card. Everything was legit - he checked out completely."

Yesterday, as this part of southern Virginia and the rest of the US was struggling to come to terms with the bloody carnage that took place on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, 40 miles away, on the outskirts of Roanoke, the shop that sold Cho one of the two semi-automatic weapons he used with such devastating effect was open and doing swift business.

Mr Markell, 58, said that officers from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) visited the store on the afternoon of the shooting - the receipt for the handgun had later been found on Cho - but they had not troubled him further. There had been no suggestion the shop should be closed or that business should be suspended.

Mr Markell said that because Cho was a foreign national, he was required to have three forms of identification with him rather than the normal two. "We also rang up the state police. They ran it through the FBI computer," Mr Markell added. "He was here on a student visa."

The Korean student, who was majoring in English, had bought a Glock, of which several were on display. (One of the members of staff gladly lifted his shirt to show The Independent his own Glock, which he was carrying in a leather holster.)

But had he wanted something else, Cho - as with other visitors to Roanoke Firearms, which shares its scruffy premises with a pawn shop - would have had a vast array of weapons to chose from.

Yesterday, the shop had on display scores of semi-automatic handguns and revolvers for between $300 and $650. There were dozens of hunting knives and a range of various paper targets.

For the more ambitious, a Steyr tactical rifle for $2,075 had been set up on the counter, while on the floor lay a Barrett .50 calibre sniper rifle, similar to one used by the US military. Behind more glass was a rack of AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifles. A packet of .45 "dum-dum" rounds was offered for $15.75. Mr Markell said his store sold 2,500 guns a year.

The shootings have already triggered new debate about the need for greater gun control. Mike Males, the author of the book Kids & Guns: How Politicians, Experts, and the Press Fabricate Fear of Youth, told the Institute for Public Accuracy in Washington: "I cannot find another country where mass shootings are so common outside of war or revolution, regardless of their other characteristics."

But many people say the incident may also lead to greater gun sales as people buy a weapon for self-defence. Leane Anderson, a firearms instructor and gun shop owner, said purchases had soared since the killings.

She said: "I think guns don't kill people, people kill people. And I'm a strong believer in being able to protect yourself and your family. The Second Amendment [which gun enthusiasts claim affords them the right to bear arms] is very important to me. If it was taken away I'd be very upset."

But Mr Markell, owner of Roanoke Firearms for the past eight years, said that when Cho entered the store five weeks ago, his mind had not been on murder - even though he had filed off the weapons' identification numbers. He said he believed the student had bought ammunition more suitable for target shooting than for "self protection".

"I think that something pushed him over the edge. He did not buy that gun to do what he did," he said. "This was not pre-meditated five weeks ago ... You don't plan something [like this] five weeks in advance."