AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said in interviews today that he would be open to allowing people to carry guns inside his state’s public schools in the wake of last Friday’s massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.

Appearing on WTOP, McDonnell was asked what steps states might take of a shooting spree in which 26 people, including 20 young children, were gunned down. During the segment, McDonnell said he would welcome a conversation about whether it is wise to place more guns in schools.

“I think there should at least be a discussion of that,” McDonnell said. “If people were armed, not just a police officer, but other school officials that were trained and chose to have a weapon, certainly there’d be an opportunity to stop aggressors coming into the schools.”

McDonnell previously backed a ban on anyone but police officers bringing guns into school, but was apparently swayed by the story of Dawn Hochsprung, the Sandy Hook principal who ran toward shooter Adam Lanza in an attempt to bring him down. “If a person like that was armed and trained could they have stopped the carnage in the classroom?” McDonnell asked. “Perhaps.”

Earlier in the day, news broke that Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder intends to veto a bill that would allow concealed weapons in public schools.

McDonnell also talked about guns on MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown. Host Chuck Todd asked if McDonnell, who enjoys the one of the National Rifle Association’s highest ratings, would concur with fellow gun rights advocates like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) who have said they are open to revisiting restrictions on assault weapons like the one used in the Sandy Hook rampage.

“I don’t think that’s the first place you look,” McDonnell replied. He added that when “grieving and emotional,” people sometimes make decisions that “might not fit the problem.”

McDonnell, a Republican, did also discuss his state’s mental health program’s. As attorney general in 2007, when 32 people were gunned down at Virginia Tech, McDonnell supported an executive order by then-Gov. Tim Kaine to submit to a federal database the names of gun license applicants with histories of mental illness.