What lessons are we to learn from the Virginia Tech killings? Do we forget it as yet another instance of American violence? But forgetting Virginia Tech would mean turning a blind eye to an already-emerging global catastrophe of arms proliferation and trade.

The United Nations estimates that 500,000 people are killed each year with small arms, over 80 per cent of the casualties being women and children. In the US alone, more than 30,000 people die from gunshot wounds every year and there are more guns in private hands than in any other country. According to the former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, guns have become “weapons of mass destruction”.

The global gun trade is worth four billion dollars a year, of which guns worth one billion may be unauthorized or illicit. Eight million new guns are being manufactured every year by at least 1,249 companies in 92 countries. As much as 88 per cent of conventional arms exports in the world are from the P-5 countries, which include US, Britain, China, Russia and France. In addition, 10 to 14 billion units of ammunition are manufactured every year — two bullets for every person on the earth.

In the US constitution, the right to bear arms is protected by the Bill of Rights in the Second Amendment which reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The National Rifle Association boasts 4.3 million members, and is an immensely powerful political pressure group that defends gun ownership as a basic civil liberty. Many libertarians argue that “guns don’t kill people, people do”. But it is also far easier to go on a rampage with a gun than with a machete or with rat-poison. People kill people, guns kill masses of people.

Virginia has inordinately lenient gun laws. The buyer does not require a permit and anyone over 18 years can buy firearms, including assault weapons. The buyer only has to present two forms of identification, and pass an elementary computerized background check for criminal record. The most egregious limitation appears to be that one can only buy one handgun a month. But this too can be circumvented with the acquisition of a permit. The good news for Virginian gun-lovers is that there is apparently no waiting period to acquire the gun, although this privilege does not apply to non-state residents.

Traditionally, Democrats and those on the Left favour more stringent gun control and regulation. Presumably, this is the time for Democrats — who now control both the House and the Senate — to push for greater gun regulation. But that has not been the case, primarily because the Democrats have been trying to appease a conservative electorate. One can only hope that the macabre tragedy of Virginia will present an opportunity to ignore electoral calculations and argue for greater gun regulation.