SALT LAKE CITY -- Government officials trying to come to grips with recent mass public shootings said Friday they couldn't offer any solutions yet and weren't eager to open a debate over gun control.

"For all of us, it was a wake-up call," Gov. Jon Huntsman said of deadly shootings at Virginia Tech and Salt Lake City's Trolley Square mall.

"These are unthinkably complex issues," Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, Utah's former governor, said at a news conference. It was marked by few specifics on hours of discussions held privately at the Utah Capitol by dozens of government officials, mental health professionals, lawmen and educators.

Leavitt said government officials were just starting to examine a stew of gun, video game and mental health problems that threaten public safety and were far from making recommendations.

None of the officials wanted to field any questions on gun control.

"One could blame guns. One could blame access to the media. One could blame video games," Huntsman said.

Leavitt arrived in Utah as part of a traveling federal delegation charged by President Bush with reviewing broad questions raised by the Virginia Tech shootings.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings are part of the team, but neither made it to Utah on Friday.

Bush has called for a report from his advisers within 30 days.

One issue officials could explore are laws that are supposed to block mentally ill people from buying guns.

The Virginia Tech gunman, Cho Seung-Hui, passed background checks despite a judge's ruling that he was mentally ill and a danger to himself.

That determination should have stopped Cho from buying two handguns, but it never made it into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. More than half the states cannot -- or will not -- supply mental health determinations to the FBI database, The Associated Press has found.

Aides to Huntsman and U.S. Attorney Brent Tolman said Friday they were uncertain if Utah satisfies the federal mandate.

But in an interview, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said Utah has some of the nation's strictest procedures blocking the mentally ill from buying guns or obtaining a concealed weapons permit.

It wasn't certain immediately clear how well the procedures work in practice, however. And no background check is required at gun shows, where anyone can get make a purchase without scrutiny.

Some states that report mentally ill people to the federal database do so only when the person is involuntarily committed to a mental hospital. Utah makes no such distinction, reporting anyone deemed mentally deficit by a court, according to Shurtleff.

Utah goes further in controlling concealed weapons permits. It gives a review board the power to refuse to issue or take away a permit from anyone the board deems a danger, regardless of any court determination, Shurtleff said.

The board can act on complaints or appeals, he said.

Bush's mandate to Leavitt and others was prompted by the April 16 Virginia Tech shootings where Cho, a South Korean immigrant, killed 32 people and then himself on campus.

On Feb. 12, Sulejman Talovic, 18, a Bosnian refugee living in Salt Lake City, gunned down nine people at Trolley Square mall. He killed five people and wounded four others before dying in a gun battle with police.

Authorities are still stumped by Talovic's motive, Police Chief Chris Burbank said Friday. His detectives are expected to issue a report on the shooting within a month.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A7.