Obama says U.S. needs to review gun policies

NASHUA, N.H. --Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said this week's shooting at Virginia Tech highlights serious shortcomings with gun control.

"We're still selling handguns to crazy people," Obama said during a campaign stop at a Nashua senior center on Friday. "We're supposed to have a system that these people are screened out. What's clear is the background check system in this case failed entirely."

On Monday, 32 people were killed by a single gunman on the Blacksburg, Va., campus. Police say 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui then turned the gun on himself.

"Obviously, this week was heartbreaking," Obama said. "I don't think there was anything that could've guaranteed we wouldn't have seen violence at Virginia Tech."

But Cho's actions were not random or the result of an unexpected mental "snap," Obama said.

"This is someone who had been hospitalized just last year, if I'm not mistaken, for mental illness," Obama said.

The Illinois senator, who is not a hunter, has said he does not want to take away hunters' or sportsmen's rights. However, there has to be a reasonable balance between those rights and public safety, he said.

"(Cho) had a semiautomatic weapon with a clip that allowed him to take 19 shots in a row," Obama said. "I don't know any self-respecting hunter that needs 19 rounds of anything. The only reason you have 19 rounds is potentially to do physical harm to people. You don't shoot 19 rounds at a deer. And if you do, you shouldn't be hunting."