Gun control?

Recently, a tragedy had occurred in Virginia at Virginia Tech University. A 23 year old South Korean student gunman had killed 32 people. Two months ago, he had purchased a .22-calibre Walther P22 gun and a month later, a Glock 9mm handgun and a box of ammunition. He presented required identifications: a Virginia driver’s licence, cheques that matched the address on the licence and a federal immigration card to prove he is a legal US resident. He passed a background check and left Roanoke Firearms with his gun. It was this easy for Cho to purchase a gun in Virginia, resulting in an episode that no one expected would happen.
This massacre has revived the gun control debate once again. In USA, the minimum requirements for buying a gun are a clean track record, above the age of 18 and must be an American citizen. Virginia’s gun laws were more lax as the legal age of purchasing a gun was 12 with parental supervision. This clearly meant that there are chances of a student carrying a gun with him/her. To make things worse, by allowing students to carry guns, it promotes the use of gun as self-defense under certain circumstances. Even children of age 12 is allowed to possess a gun, I would not be surprised if there are cases whereby children shoot parents dead with guns. With such lax gun laws, it is no wondered how the South Korean student Cho was able to purchase the guns so easily, leading to the deaths of 32 other people.
Despite this incident, the American leaders are in no hurry to ban guns. There are calls for gun control but we don’t get as much asking for armed self-defense. Have the massacre not taught the country a bitter lesson? Have the shooting not serve as a wake up call to the American government to impose stricter gun laws to prevent such tragedy from happening? In Singapore, people are not allowed to carry guns unless authorized. The possibilities of homicides involving gun shoots are rare. Singaporean citizens live in peace and safe environment. The streets are much safer as compared to countries that allow their citizens to purchase guns. If we are able to maintain peace without guns, why not ban the use of guns?
The reason used by Americans for allowing the possession of guns is for self-defence. It is not an adequate reason to possess a gun. Gun is a lethal weapon, by allowing citizens to purchase guns for “self-defence” merely promotes violence and use of armaments. What kind of mindset would the young grow up with in an environment which is pro-gun? It’s appalling that a student like Cho whom the Roanoke Firearms owner John Markell claim was as clean cut a kid as you would ever want to see, was capable of committing such act. Never judge a book by its cover, even the most unexpected person around you may carry a gun with him/her. Although Cho was mentally unstable but the whole episode could have been avoided if the gun laws were much stricter or even better, guns were banned in the state.