President Bush finally decided to take action and sign a law meant to prevent the severely mentally ill from purchasing a gun. The state will grant $1.3 billion to improve the tracking and reporting of individuals who do not have the right to buy a gun. It is for the first time in 14 years that gun-control measures are being taken, following the tragic events at Virginia Tech, when gunman Seung-Hui Cho had unrestricted access to buying fire weapons despite him being declared mentally ill.

Furthermore, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy wants to put and end to the so-called ‘gun show loophole’ that allows dealers to sell firearms without background checks. Her efforts, together with those of New York Democrats Sen. Chuck Schumer, started five years ago, in 2002, after a priest and a parishioner were killed that year in a Lynbrook church.

“No one imagined it would take five years” said Schumer after President Bush signed the bill. “Had it become law earlier, it may have saved the lives of 32 students at Virginia Tech by another mentally ill gunman.” Sen. Schumer is decided to take the law further and require background check for every gun sale, but unfortunately that will be a long fight, as the National Rifle association strongly opposes.

Tony Fratto, White House spokesman, said that Bush strongly supports the bill: “We saw the terrible shootings at Virginia Tech last year that an incomplete system can have tragic consequences.” The $1.3 billion granted for the bill are to be used over a five year period in order to increase the state feeds, which would establish a national system able to run background checks on all gun purchases.