Calls for stricter gun laws after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December did not persuade the Virginia General Assembly to pass such legislation during its 2013 session.

Gov. Bob McDonnell is urging state legislators to approve recommendations from his School and Campus Safety Task Force that would increase sentences for illegally buying guns, require mandatory lockdown drills at schools and establish more comprehensive suicide prevention programs.

Here is Sam Isaac’s live-blog of the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Public Square community forum about gun issues.

Virginia’s General Assembly is also focused on preventing campus shootings like the one at Virginia Tech, but gun control is only one segment of the issue.

Vice President Joe Biden held a round-table discussion about gun violence Friday at Virginia Commonwealth University, saying “we cannot remain silent” on the issue.

While Virginia Commonwealth University isn’t the center of the gun debate triggered by December’s school shootings in Connecticut, Vice President Joe Biden got VCU’s help Friday in continuing the national dialogue on the matter.

Here’s our live-blog of Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to VCU.

Hundreds of citizens gathered at Virginia Commonwealth University last week for a demonstration in honor of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager whose killing has prompted a national debate over guns and self-defense laws.

On issues ranging from tax credits for private school tuition to a homeowner’s right to kill an intruder, several bills before the 2012 General Assembly resembled model laws proposed by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a politically conservative think tank funded by major corporations.

With the stroke of his pen Tuesday, Gov. Bob McDonnell removed the limit on how many handguns Virginians can buy each month. McDonnell, a Republican, signed legislation repealing the 19-year-old law prohibiting the purchase of more than one handgun per month. The repeal takes effect July 1.

Both sides in the Second Amendment debate in Virginia are looking to combat Monday’s Senate passage of House Bill 48, better known as the “Castle Doctrine.” The bill, introduced by Delegate Richard “Dickie” Bell, R-Staunton, passed the House on Feb. 9 on a 70-28 vote. On Monday afternoon, the Senate voted 24-16 to approve a slightly different version of the bill. The two chambers must resolve the wording before the bill can be sent to Gov. Bob McDonnell to be signed or vetoed.

A House subcommittee has defeated a Senate-approved bill that would have permitted hunting on Sundays in Virginia. A subcommittee of the House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee recommended Wednesday that Senate Bill 464 be tabled. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, would have allowed hunting on Sundays on private property by the landowners, their immediate family or people who have written permission from the landowners.

Virginians soon may be able to purchase more guns than they can carry, all in one buy – for the first time in almost two decades. With the exception of law enforcement officials and some concealed-weapon permit holders, a 1993 state law has prohibited the purchase of more than one handgun every 30 days. On Monday, the Senate passed a bill to revoke this law; the House had approved a similar measure last week.

Five years after Virginia Tech made campus safety the focus of lawmakers across the nation, the school seems to be shying away from the issue during this year’s General Assembly session. While Virginia Commonwealth University student groups made campus safety an explicit priority at their “Rams Day on the Hill,” students attending “Hokie Day 2012” on behalf of Virginia Tech were hesitant to say the school was focusing on anything except higher education funding.

Citizens looking for more personal protection can rest easy after two bills that would allow the use of deadly force in one’s home moved forward this week in the General Assembly. Staunton Delegate Robert “Dickie” Bell’s House Bill 48, better known as the “Castle Doctrine,” won an endorsement Friday from the House Courts of Justice Committee.

Delegate Bob Marshall of Manassas has proposed a bill that would allow full-time faculty members to carry guns on college campuses. House Bill 91 would ban policies by public institutions of higher education that prohibit full-time faculty members with Virginia concealed handgun permits from packing heat.

Virginians are one step closer to being able to hunt on Sundays. On a 29-11 vote Thursday, the Senate passed a bill that would allow Sunday hunting on private land. Sen. Ralph Northam, a Democrat from Norfolk, introduced Senate Bill 464. Originally, it would have completely lifted the state’s ban on hunting on Sundays.

Delegate Dickie Bell, R-Staunton, is sponsoring two bills that would empower Virginians to use lethal force against an intruder in their home. House Bill 47 would grant civil immunity to anyone who injures or kills someone while defending their home from another person who has posed a threat of injury to the other or has entered the home unlawfully.

Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Mount Solon, the new chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee, predicts that uranium mining and hunting laws will be among the more controversial topics during this year’s General Assembly session.