Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said during a Tuesday radio interview that he may be able to issue an executive order to close the loophole that allowed Virgina Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho to purchase a firearm despite having been ordered to receive psychiatric treatment by a Virginia court in 2005. A federal law prohibits persons "who have been adjudicated as a mental defective or who has been committed to a mental institution" from possessing or receiving "any firearm or ammunition," but the Virginia reporting law only requires submission of records of persons who have been "involuntarily committed" or ruled mentally "incapacitated."

Legislation seeking to improve enforcement of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) has been introduced in the House of Representatives in the past three terms, but never became law.