BLACKSBURG -- A weapons dealer who sold a gun used in last year's Virginia Tech massacre came to campus yesterday to argue that letting college students carry concealed weapons is the best way "to get serious" about stopping killers.

Eric Thompson owns the online store TGSCOM Inc. of Green Bay, Wis., which sold killer Seung-Hui Cho a .22-caliber handgun, one of two guns Cho used. At the end of Thompson's 45-minute speech last night to about 60 of Tech's roughly 26,000 students, he was warmly applauded.

"I'm standing up for what I believe in, and more importantly, I'm trying to save lives," said Thompson, whose company also sold two 9 mm Glock magazines to the gunman who killed five people at Northern Illinois University in February. "There's people right now who are preparing to come into classes and kill as many people as possible and then kill themselves."

Thompson's visit came the week after the anniversary of Cho's April 16, 2007, massacre of 32 students and teachers. Thompson was invited by the Tech chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.

Tech does not allow students to bring weapons to school.