On Monday, the United States experienced its bloodiest mass shooting ever when an armed assailant killed 32 and wounded over 20 on the campus of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute before killing himself.
"I have always categorically opposed the unrestricted sale of weapons, and this tragedy only supports my arguments," said Sergei Mironov, chairman of the Federation Council.
He expressed his condolences to friends and relatives of those killed, and said the U.S. had made an inexcusable mistake by allowing people to bear arms.
"As far as Russia is concerned, there are a lot of unbalanced people here, and legalizing the sale of weapons would only multiply crimes," Mironov said.
Shootings in academic facilities occur with alarming regularity in the United States, including the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, Colorado, which claimed the lives of 12 students and one teacher, when two teenagers went on a shooting spree before turning the guns on themselves.
Prior to Monday's rampage, America's deadliest mass shooting took place in 1991 in Killen, Texas, when George Hennard drove his pickup truck into a cafeteria and shot 23 people before killing himself.
