Curbing guns, but not too much

ON APRIL 16th last year a deranged student, Cho Seung-hui, killed 32 people before shooting himself at Virginia Tech university. He had legally acquired the two handguns he used that morning. Before his rampage on the campus, which spreads over the rolling hills of Blacksburg, teachers and university police were already worried about his volatile behaviour and violent writings. He was recommended for psychiatric treatment but, because of cracks in the state mental-health system, never received it.
Virginia's rush to reform has been dramatic but incomplete. At the urging of the state's governor, Timothy Kaine, the legislature has funnelled an extra $42m into mental-health treatment and staff. Virginia has also rewritten its laws for identifying and monitoring the mentally ill. One new law requires colleges to alert the parents of students who may be a danger to themselves or to others. And the state now requires mental-health questions on the instant-background checks for gun-buyers. These might have kept firearms out of Cho's hands.