IN THE EYES of the world media, the sniper shooting spree in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia is only confirming what it views as the insanity of America's gun culture.

Newspapers in Europe are also blaming the greed of Hollywood filmmakers and the makers of bloody American video games.

And the Russian press is horrified by what it sees as a heartless American media so bent on getting a scoop that it allegedly helps the sniper evade police.

Places like the Fredericksburg area, where the sniper has struck twice, are being portrayed as war zones.

From this week's Sunday Times of London:

"At petrol stations--the snipers favourite killing ground--drivers duck behind their cars. People sprint away in zigzags after parking their cars."

A piece in Monday's edition of The Express, a London newspaper, pointed a finger at America's "sniper culture."

"By one estimate," the article, written by The Express' Dermot Purgavie, said, "there may be 100,000 sniper rifles in private hands ranging in price, power, accuracy and range all the way up to the Robar RC-50, which fires a 50-calibre, armour piercing round--the largest legally available to civilians--at targets more than a mile away."

An excerpt from the article:

"In a nation that has millions of gung-ho cammo-and-ammo en-thusiasts, and no shortage of gun nuts, vigilantes, survivalists and assorted thrill-seekers the specialised skills and alarming fantasies of the weekend sniper are now being nourished by an increasing number of training schools, books, magazines and Web sites, an expanding supply of advanced precision weapons and by a macho mystique cultivated in professional sniping circles, where the T-shirts proudly brag, 'One shot, one kill.'"

The Express' Purgavie noted the contents of two American Web sites.

"Sniper's Paradise offers a selection of assertive sniper aphorisms, among them, 'Don't try to run--you'll only die tired,' and 'The careful application of terror is another form of communication.'"

He wrote that on another Web site, Sniper Country, letter writers criticize the Washington-area sniper, saying he's an amateur for failing to use more devastating ammunition "and not something bigger and more exotic that can 'jelly the brains of anything within 200 meters.'"

An article in Wednesday's Times of London flatly blamed Americans' fascination with guns.