(KMOV) - A national gun control group wants Missouri and Illinois to crack down on a legal loophole for gun owners.

The same technicality allowed the Virginia Tech shooter to buy his guns.

It is the latest issue in the ongoing debate over gun ownership, closing off a legal loophole that seems to allow those with a history of mental illness to purchase a gun.

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence points out that Missouri and Illinois do not report all mental status information into a national database that checks on potential gun owners.

It is the same loophole that enabled Seung Hui Cho to buy a handgun before he killed 32 people on the campus of Virginia Tech.

Gunshop owners point out the federal application addresses any history of mental illness.

The Brady Center reports that for every 75,000 guns purchases in the US, only one is stopped for mental health illness.