US draws criticism for gun laws

There was harsh condemnation for US gun control laws today following the shootings at Virginia Tech university yesterday.

In Sydney, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said the university shooting in Virginia showed that America's "gun culture" was a negative force in society.

Howard, who staked his political leadership on pushing through tough laws on gun ownership in Australia after a lone gunman in his country killed 35 people in a spree, said the Virginia university shooting was a tragedy of a kind he hoped would never be seen again in Australia.

"You can never guarantee these things won't happen again in our country," Howard told reporters.

"We had a terrible incident at Port Arthur, but it is the case that 11 years ago we took action to limit the availability of guns and 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," he said.

He offered his sympathies to the victims of the Virginia shooting and their families.

In India, which has some 80,000 students in the US, commentators called for greater protection and stricter gun laws.

"It's not a question of an Indian professor getting killed in the firing. This is related to the American gun laws," said K Subrahmanyam, a former member of India's National Security Council.

"We can't do anything about it. It is something which has happened in the United States. They have got to change the law."