Cho went by the book to purchase the guns he used

Seung-hui Cho’s recent purchase of the two semiautomatic handguns used in the Virginia Tech rampage was done by the book and in accordance with Virginia’s firearms laws.

Cho bought one of the guns, a .22-caliber Walther P22, at JND Pawnbrokers in Blacksburg in February, a federal law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said. Cho then bought a 9-millimeter Glock Model 19 at Roanoke Firearms on March 12, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because federal law prohibits the release of information about specific gun traces.

The dealers involved did everything they were legally required to do before selling them to Cho, said Michael Campbell, special agent and spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives. “As far as I know, everything was legitimate. The background checks were done. They followed all the procedures.”

Under Virginia law, Cho -- a South Korean-born legal resident of the United States -- would have had to show a state driver’s license issued at least 30 days before the sale, a checkbook with checks that matched the address on his license and an immigration card showing that he was living legally in the U.S.

As required, the two gun shops then contacted the Virginia State Police, which performed instantaneous criminal background checks to make sure he wasn’t a felon or in violation of several other conditions. Then they took Cho’s money, gave him the weapons and sent him on his way, the federal official said.

An employee at JND Pawnbrokers declined to confirm whether the shop sold Cho one of the weapons used in the worst gun rampage in U.S. history. “We’re not discussing it,” said the employee, who declined to give his name.

At Roanoke Firearms, Cho paid with a credit card and was out the door with the Glock the same day, the shop’s owner, John Markell, said Tuesday.

Markell said he wasn’t in the shop when an employee sold Cho the gun for $535; he also bought two small boxes of target ammunition.

Under Virginia law, he said, the employee could have blocked the purchase if Cho had been acting suspiciously. But Cho “didn’t act fidgety; he just acted normal,” Markell said he was told by the employee.

“He was about as clean-cut a kid as you ever want to see,” Markell said.

“He had all the proper ID, he filled out the paperwork, we checked with the State Police and he was clear. It really was a very unremarkable sale.”

Cho did not need a license or permit to buy a handgun in Virginia. The state prohibits gun shops from selling to various categories of individuals, such as convicted felons, subjects of domestic restraining orders, those dishonorably discharged from the military and persons convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence, but Cho was none of these, authorities said Tuesday.

Cho also did not run afoul of Virginia’s limit of one gun purchase in any 30-day period because he left more than a month between his two purchases, authorities said.

Authorities say Cho did break the law by scratching off some of the serial numbers of the two weapons sometime before Monday’s shooting spree in an apparent attempt to cover his tracks if the weapons were found near the scene.

In any case, it didn’t work. “People think that if you just take the serial number off, then you won’t be able to identify the weapon,” Campbell said.

As soon as authorities reached the crime scene and secured the area, the two guns were delivered to an ATF forensic lab in Ammendale, Md. There, experts used special techniques to “raise” the serial numbers, which allowed them to contact the manufacturers to see where the guns had been shipped initially.

Authorities also found paperwork for the gun purchase from Roanoke Firearms in Cho’s possession. At least four agents rushed over to the shop, where Markell produced the required federal form 4473 linking the purchase to Cho.

But the ATF still needed to trace the second gun. Its lab experts were able to get the serial number on the second weapon by 4 a.m. Tuesday. They contacted the manufacturer to learn which wholesaler had received that particular shipment of weapons. From there, authorities tracked the gun to JND Pawnbrokers, and then to Cho, the federal official said.

Gun control advocates said Tuesday that Cho’s rampage underscored the need for more checks and balances over gun purchases.

“The fact of the matter is that it is too easy for any American to get their hands on the kind of firepower you need to execute 32 people in short order,” said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center in Washington. “They are just much more efficient killing machines,” Rand said of semiautomatics like the Walther and the Glock.

She said that the background checks required by most states and the federal government were cursory and didn’t access many immigration, mental health and domestic violence records. The background checks, she said, also allowed people to buy guns even if they were on a terrorist watch list, or if they had been convicted of many serious misdemeanors, including aggravated assault and gun charges.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence grades Virginia’s gun laws as C-minus, which leaves it ahead of the 32 states that get Ds or Fs. Virginia got a relatively high grade because of its restrictions on guns in the hands of people under 18 -- which did not apply to the 23-year-old Cho. State law also does not allow guns in elementary or high schools -- but there is no mention of colleges or universities.

Rand also said Virginia was lenient in allowing people to obtain concealed-weapons permits. It was not known Tuesday whether Cho had such a permit.

Some opponents of gun control argue that limiting access to firearms would not have prevented Monday’s carnage. Markell, the gun shop owner, said he wished Virginia Tech students were allowed to carry firearms on campus. Sporting a holstered gun and a Glock cap himself Tuesday, he said he thought it would make the campus safer.

Nevertheless, Markell said he was “torn up over the shooting.”

“I don’t think I’m responsible, but at the same time it made me feel terrible that it was one of our guns.”

But, he added, “I feel that the same thing would have happened if he’d bought the gun somewhere else.”

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josh.meyer@latimes.com

richard.fausset@latimes.com

Meyer reported from Washington and Fausset from Roanoke. Times staff writer Joel Havemann in Washington contributed to this report.