• Veepstakes: Virginia, McDonnell get polished in new ad

    By NBC's Domenico Montanaro and Mark Murray

    It doesn't hurt to make your state -- and yourself -- look as good as possible right when the nominee for your party is trying to pick a No. 2, especially when your job runs out in a year.

    Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's PAC, Opportunity Virginia, is up with a new ad, promoting what's to love in Virginia (and who's been in charge).

    But it was just last week that McDonnell denied to NBC's Chuck Todd on MSNBC's The Daily Rundown that his PAC would soon be going up with ads.

    "You can't believe everything you read in the papers," McDonnell said. "We don't have any plans at this point."

    He added, “We're always looking for ways to get out the positive message of Virginia," but then later said: “I don't know where those reports have come from."

  • Post Show Thoughts: Santorum sees competitive race ahead

    Rick Santorum thinks a Newt Gingrich exit from the race would create a "better opportunity to make sure that [Republicans] nominate a conservative," in the Fall. However, the former Pennsylvania senator stopped short of calling for Gingrich's withdrawal.

    "I didn't ask Speaker Gingrich to get in. I'm not going to ask him to get out.," Santorum said.  He hopes that Gingrich's exit would galvanize Republican voters to unite behind Santorum as the lone conservative alternative to Mitt Romney. 

    Santorum also made the case that the delegate math is not as steeped in favor of Romney as commentators make it out to be. "This isn't a mathematical formula. This race has a tremendous amount of dynamics," Santorum said.

    He cited the fact that many of Mitt Romney's awarded delegates are uncommitted and can change to support Santorum. "These numbers are going to change dramatically," he said. 

    Also, Governors Martin O'Malley (D-MD) and Bob McDonnell (R-VA) joined me to weigh in on the 2012 race. O'Malley panned the Republican field for focusing more on getting votes, rather than trying to fix the country's problems. 

    "Let's be honest, there's been a lot more time spent pandering to the extreme right wing ideologues of the new Republican party than has been spent talking about jobs and economy," O'Malley said.

    McDonnell, a Mitt Romney supporter who has been mentioned as a possible VP choice, attacked President Obama for bringing "division and malaise" to the country. When asked whether or not he wanted to be president, McDonnell responded "No. I got the job held by Jefferson and Henry. I love being governor of Virginia."

    You can watch our entire program on our website, including our political roundtable that addressed the question of whether or not civility is gone in American politics today. I was joined by MSNBC’s Al Sharpton,  Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Washington Post’s EJ Dionne, and the Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan.

    We'll be back next week. If it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press.

  • Virginia repeals one-a-month limit on handgun purchases

    By msnbc.com news services

    RICHMOND, Va. -- A Virginia law limiting handgun purchases to one per month was repealed Tuesday, over the opposition of gun control supporters and relatives of victims who survived the Virginia Tech massacre.

    Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell signed the bill into law after it was passed two weeks ago by the GOP-controlled General Assembly. He did not comment on signing the bill, though he said earlier he supported repealing the law.

    The governor met Saturday with families of people killed or injured in the April 2007 shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. The families had hoped to persuade him to veto the bill, although they knew it was a long shot.

    Andrew Goddard, whose son Colin was wounded at Virginia Tech, was at the meeting. He said the governor had previously said he would sign the bill and "it would have been very difficult for him to go back on it."

    McDonnell is seen as a contender for his party's vice presidential nomination in 2012. He signed the repeal a day after a high school student opened fire with a handgun at an Ohio school, killing three students and wounding two others.

    Colin Goddard of the Brady Campaign, a survivor from the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, shares his thoughts regarding Monday morning's shooting at Chardon High School and the NOW panel weighs in on the need for stricter gun control laws.

    Opponents worry that lifting the limit could spur an increase in gun violence.

    'They have not learned'
    Goddard, president of the Virginia Center for Public Safety, reserved his harshest criticism for legislators who passed the bill.

    "They have not learned a damn thing," Goddard said. Alluding to Monday's school shooting that left three students dead in Ohio, Goddard said: "Here we are watching kids dying in other states, and we're going to be a purveyor of firearms for other states."

    Lori Haas, whose daughter Emily was wounded in the shooting that left the gunman and 32 others dead at Virginia Tech, said she was disappointed by the governor's action.

    "Getting rid of the one-handgun-a-month law will make it easier for gun traffickers to purchase handguns in bulk," she said in a written statement. "There have been too many tragedies in other states fueled by guns that come from Virginia, and this will only make the situation worse."

    Del. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Prince William and sponsor of the repeal bill, said the one-handgun limit didn't accomplish much for law enforcement.

    April 16: On the anniversary of a campus shooting, the Virginia Tech community gathered to commemorate the 32 people who lost their lives. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

    "I think Virginians deserve effective laws, and one handgun a month has been overtaken by technology and improved background checks," he said. "Criminals don't go into gun stores, stand there in the bright light, hand over their driver's license and stand there and wait for the vendor to see if they have a criminal record."

    He added: "If you really want to get after gun crime, you get after people who use guns illegally. You don't punish law-abiding citizens."

    The 1993 law was a major legislative legacy of Democratic former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, passed when Virginia was a favorite armory for East Coast criminals. It never applied to rifles or shotguns.

    The law was intended to slow the flow of guns from Virginia to New York City and other metropolitan areas in the Northeast. In 1991, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms found that 40 percent of the 1,236 guns found at crime scenes in New York had been purchased in Virginia.

    Goddard said the repeal legislation was one of 30 gun bills his organization opposed this year in a session that has seen an increase in conservative measures pushed by Republicans, who strengthened their House majority and gained control of the Senate in last November's elections. Ten of those bills are still alive, he said, whereas in previous years only one or two pro-gun bills typically were passed.

    More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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