BLACKSBURG -- An online weapons dealer who sold one of two guns used in the Virginia Tech mass shootings is planning to speak tonight on campus.

Eric Thompson is to speak at the school tonight as part of a weeklong demonstration in favor of concealed weapons on college campuses.

Ken Stanton, president of the university's chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, said the visit had not prompted objections until a school spokesman denounced it.

He had received a number of complaints after Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker issued a statement saying he found it "terribly offensive" that Thompson would set foot on campus.

"The organizers appear to be incredibly insensitive to the families of the victims who lost loved ones and to the injured students still recovering from this horrendous tragedy," Hincker said.

Virginia Tech last week marked the first anniversary of the shootings in a dormitory and classroom building in which 33 died, including shooter Seung-Hui Cho.

Stanton said Thompson's connection to the shootings was random. Cho bought a Walther .22-caliber handgun through Thompson's Internet gun store based in Green Bay, Wis. The store also sold handgun accessories to the man who killed five Northern Illinois University students in February.

Members of the student group, which claims a nationwide membership of 25,000 and 200 at Virginia Tech, are wearing empty holsters to classes this week to protest laws and policies that restrict concealed weapons on campuses.

-- The Associated Press