store owner sez he's not 'responsible' -
killer was calm and passed an FBI check


John Markell, the owner of the Roanoke, Va., gun shop that sold Cho Seung-hui a 9-mm., holds the same model Glock handgun that Cho used in his campus massacre.



ROANOKE, Va. - John Markell sat in a blue minivan in the parking lot of his ramshackle gun shop yesterday, agonizing over the Glock 19 he sold to the Virginia Tech killer only a few weeks ago.

Markell, 58, was not there the day Cho Seung-hui bought the 9-mm. handgun from a clerk - but he cashed his check.

"I don't feel I'm responsible, but I just feel terrible he used one of our guns," Markell told the Daily News in a barely audible whisper.

The longtime sportsman in dark aviator sunglasses and a black Glock-logo baseball hat appeared so distraught that bystanders told him they were sorry.

Despite his regret, Markell presides over an impressive arsenal.

Through a glass door with a picture of Osama Bin Laden under a red bull's-eye, lay one large display case with 20 military-style M-4 assault rifles. Hundreds of handguns and a Kalashnikov were laid out in glass cases.

For $3,875, anyone with a clean record, cash and three IDs can buy a .50-caliber Barrett sniper rifle from Markell.

The Glock 19 - an Austrian police firearm made in Georgia - was just like the one Markell picked up from the floorboard of his minivan during an interview. He pulled the slide back and demonstrated how simple it is to load the 15-round magazine.

"I was already just torn up over the tragedy," Markell said about first hearing news of the massacre.

But when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents showed up at the store Monday night and said a sales receipt from his shop was found on Cho's corpse, Markell said he "was pretty numb."

Markell noted the purchase was legal. The future mass murderer was carefully observed by the clerk who sold the gun and he acted normally.

He showed a Virginia driver's license, his checkbook and his immigration card and was approved by the FBI's instant check crime computer, Markell said.

The Glock came with two magazines and Cho bought one box with 50 rounds of low-velocity "plinker" ammo for shooting paper targets, Markell said.

With customers getting spooked over the notoriety and a staff ready to quit because Markell keeps giving interviews to reporters from as far away as Uganda, the chagrined gun dealer said he would likely get out of the business.

"I'd sell cheap today," he said.