Massacre triggers world criticism of U.S. gun laws

By Ralph Gowling

LONDON (Reuters) - World leaders and media commentators criticized what many called the gun culture in the United States on Tuesday after 33 people were killed in the country's worst shooting rampage.

The world, including U.S. arch-foe Iran, united in sympathy.

European newspapers saw a grim inevitability about the killings because the U.S. constitution enshrined the right to bear arms, and Australian Prime Minister John Howard pointed to the tough laws on gun ownership in his country as a solution.

South Korea said it was worried about a possible racial backlash in the United States after U.S. police identified the gunman who killed 32 people then himself at the Virginia Tech university on Monday as a South Korean student.

Media commentators in Europe were quick to blame permissive U.S. gun laws for the massacre.

Italy's leftist Il Manifesto newspaper said the shooting was "as American as apple pie". France's Le Monde newspaper said such episodes frequently disfigured the "American dream".

"It would be vain to hope that even so destructive a crime as this will cool the American ardor for guns," Britain's Independent newspaper said in a commentary.

Howard, a close U.S. ally over Iraq and Afghanistan, was a leading voice suggesting Washington should tighten its gun controls. Australia banned almost all types of semi-automatic weapons after a mass shooting in Tasmania in 1996.

"We showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country," Howard told reporters.

More than 30,000 people die from gunshot wounds in the United States annually and there are more guns in private hands than in any other country. But a powerful gun lobby has largely thwarted efforts to tighten controls.

PRECAUTIONS

South Korea said it was taking precautions against any possible backlash in the United States but that it regarded the shooting rampage by 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui as an "extremely isolated incident".

"We are working closely with our diplomatic missions and local Korean residents' associations in anticipation of any situation that may arise," said a South Korean Foreign Ministry official, without elaborating.

Iran, at loggerheads with Washington over its nuclear program, joined other countries round the world in expressing sympathy. "Iran condemns (the killings) and expresses its condolences to the families of victims and the American nation," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Pope Benedict were among those who sent condolences.