McDonnell signs bill lifting handgun limits

Gov. Bob McDonnell made good on a campaign promise Tuesday by signing a bill to end the state’s longstanding limits on handgun sales he once supported as a lawmaker.

The one-handgun-a-month limit was one of the toughest gun regulations on Virginia’s books for two decades, and ended a period in which the state was known as the No. 1 source for handguns on the east coast. The law was then-Gov. Doug Wilder’s response to gunrunners purchasing handguns from Virginia gun stores in bulk and selling them on the black market to would-be criminals.