BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - The Dalai Lama spoke about a range of topics on his weekend visit to Birmingham, including science and the mind, peace, love, compassion, tolerance and religious harmony.

What does the Dalai Lama think about laws banning weapons? In the city on a weekend that included some gun violence, including a shootout at a Kentucky Fried Chicken, His Holiness did touch lightly on that subject. It's not so much the law he was concerned with, it turns out, but the person holding the weapon.

"Gun control must take place here," the Dalai Lama said, tapping his chest to indicate the heart, during his talk at Regions Field on Sunday. "Then real gun control come."

It sounded a little like the National Rifle Association's mantra of "Guns don't kill people. People kill people."

For the Dalai Lama, the self-discipline of people to act morally is the central concern, more than coercing behavior through legislation.

But he then chided America for selling weapons to the world. "Arms trade - you make some money, you make some profit, at expense of innocent people's lives," the Dalai Lama said. "Not good."