The Virginia massacre will drive the question of gun control back into the mainstream US debate. I have already noted some strange details emerging:

Roanoke Firearms owner John Markell said his shop sold the Glock to Cho in March. The serial number had been scratched off, but federal agents traced it to the store using a receipt found in Cho’s backpack.

Why scratch the serial number? And why keep the receipt?

Because he killed and injured so many victims in a short span of time, some people speculated that Cho used high-capacity magazines containing as many as 33 rounds in each clip.

Under the federal assault-weapons ban enacted in 1994, magazines were limited to 10 rounds. But that ban was allowed to expire in 2004.

“The key thing that we have seen in all of these school shootings is easy access to high firepower weapons,” said Daniel Vice, an attorney with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “These killings can’t be done with baseball bats and knives.”

The ban was allowed to expire because…? Remember how the current US administration recently also fought against an international ban or regulation of illegal arms?

This horrific tragedy brings to mind a Japanese death poem from Yoel Hoffmann’s compilation of jisei no ku:

Atsujin