In a meeting yesterday with the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s editorial board, Kaine voiced concerns that lawmakers confronted with the tough budget he’s crafting for the next two fiscal years will shrink from some of the sacrifices it will require to keep the state fiscally sound in a tough economy.

An 8-year-old Westover Hills Elementary School pupil brought an unloaded .22-caliber pistol to school in his backpack today. The third-grader apparently brought the weapon to school from home, and it was discovered by his teacher after two other students reported it. The boy apparently mentioned the gun to his classmates, said Richmond schools spokeswoman Felicia Cosby.

As noted above, some conservatives are outraged by the appearance of baton-wielding individuals of the political left at a Philadelphia polling place. But conservatives seem far less worked up about the appearance of right-leaning individuals showing up with firearms at town halls and similar public events. Liberals are outraged by the town-hall gun-toters. Most could not care less about the truncheon-wielding Black Panthers in Philadelphia.

GREEN BAY, Wis.—An online weapons dealer who sold guns and accessories to those who carried out massacres at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University also sold accessories to a man who killed three women and wounded nine other people at a Pittsburgh-area health club. TGSCOM Inc. last year sold an empty Glock 9 mm magazine and magazine loading apparatus to George Sodini, who shot up a Collier Township, Pa., health club Tuesday. TGSCOM owner Eric Thompson said yesterday that the sale was legal and his company did nothing wrong.

Members of a police task force have confiscated 55 firearms in the first two months of an initiative targeting guns and criminals on Richmond’s streets. The Fugitive and Firearms Initiative also has led to 48 felony and 84 misdemeanor charges and the confiscation of crack cocaine, heroin, marijuana and cash. Richmond police, Virginia State Police and the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority police, who are teaming up on the operation, showed the growing results of their efforts in a news conference yesterday at the city police headquarters.

Colin Goddard can relate to the experience of the frightened patrons who ducked behind counters or fled Golden Food Market during a robbery-turned-shootout. Goddard was wounded April 16, 2007, when Seung-Hui Cho burst into a Virginia Tech classroom and opened fire. Now 23 and a Tech graduate, God dard works as an intern at the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington.

Today’s touché comes from a reader who raises a question about guns. The Virginia Citizens Defense League recently handed out stickers at the Richmond Coliseum prior to an appearance by talk-show sensation Glenn Beck; “Guns Save Lives,“ the stickers read. Coliseum personnel asked the VCDLers to stop handing them out—an affront to the First Amendment if ever there was one.

The Virginia Citizens Defense League is used to fighting for the right to carry guns. But now it’s having to defend the right to wear stickers about carrying guns. The group says officials at the Richmond Coliseum recently attempted to stop members from handing out blaze-orange “Guns Save Lives” stickers before an appearance by radio and television talk-show host Glenn Beck.

Sonia Sotomayor and several conservative judges agree: The Heller decision recognizing an individual right to keep and bear arms does not apply to states and localities until the Supreme Court says it does. Conservatives traditionally have embraced such an approach. Sotomayor has taken flak from gun-rights advocates who object to a ruling she joined regarding a case concerning nunchaku, or martial-arts flails. The other day 7th Circuit Judge Frank Easterbrook said much the same regarding Chicago’s ban on pistols. He was joined by Richard Posner, a jurist often liked by conservatives despite his curious view that the Constitution’s meaning depends on economic cost-benefit calculations.

The survivors of two schools linked by violence 1,500 miles and eight years apart will join hands in commemoration and activism. Lori Haas, whose daughter survived the Virginia Tech massacre two years ago today, is in Blacksburg to attend the second-anniversary commemoration of the shoot ings and take part in a student “lie-in” to protest Virginia’s lax gun laws.

ARLINGTON—Until Congress closes a loophole that makes it easy for criminals to buy firearms at gun shows, Virginia and other states must work to tighten their own laws, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said today. Bloomberg joined family members of Virginia Tech massacre victims in northern Virginia to unveil a new television ad that will begin airing Tuesday, which calls on the state to end a practice allowing what are called “occasional sellers” at gun shows to sell weapons without conducting background checks.

A partnership between Lynchburg police and area churches to reduce violence and take guns off the street formalized plans Thursday for a kickoff event on April 25. The program is Lynchburg’s first gun-surrender event since 1995. As part of the program, those turning in guns are entered to win a retired police cruiser. Members of the partnership announced that the event at the Lynchburg Parks and Recreation building will include an overview of the partnership and program followed by a cookout from 2 to 5 p.m. in Miller Park.

Ajury ruled Tahliek Taliaferro’s slaying accidental. Protesters are calling it premeditated murder. What’s undeniable is that a night of bad blood and bad judgment would have resulted in little more than a fistfight without the weapons at Ethan Parrish’s disposal. A gun in the wrong hands at the wrong time has a way of turning a quarrel into a tragedy.

As expected, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine yesterday vetoed five death-penalty bills and a bill that would allow holders of concealed weapons permits to carry guns into bars and restaurants. Kaine may have trouble sustaining his veto of a couple of the death-penalty measures when lawmakers reconvene in Richmond on April 8. Two of the bills would extend eligibility for the death penalty to murderers of auxiliary police officers. Another would extend eligibility for the penalty to murderers of fire marshals.

During his trial for the death of Tahliek Taliaferro, Ethan Parrish testified that when he fired his semiautomatic weapon, the rifle “rose up on me. I lost control of it.“ Although we generally share the sentiments of the slogan, “Guns don’t kill people, people do,“ we will remember Parrish’s assertion—and its implications—the next time we hear the pro-gun cliché.