Joshua Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, had this to say: "Our condolences go to the victims of today's shooting in Germany. Americans -- with the impact of Columbine still emblazoned on our national conscience -- know all too well the pain that the German people are going through today. No community, in no nation anywhere in the world, should have to endure such gruesome acts of violence and death.

"While we do not yet know how the gunman obtained his weapon, the gun lobby likely will use today's shooting to say that gun laws do not work -- that Germany's strict gun laws failed to prevent this massacre. But the real issue here is the illegal gun market, fueled by the smuggling of weapons from countries with weak gun laws -- such as Eastern European and Balkan nations as reported in press accounts today -- into countries with tough laws like Germany.

"Today's tragedy in Germany is another wake-up call for America, which has the same illegal gun trafficking problem between states that Germany has with other nations. Study after study has shown the effectiveness of state laws at stopping illegal gun transactions. But those laws are undermined when guns are illegally trafficked into states with tough gun laws from states with weak gun laws. What is needed is a national policy -- such as extending Brady background checks to all gun sales, handgun licensing, and handgun registration -- to standardize the crazy patchwork of state laws, and to stop illegal gun trafficking."

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