The father of Virginia journalist Alison Parker, who was killed in an on-air shooting, has said that he would become a crusader for gun control. Two journalists, reporter Parker and cameraman Adam Ward of Roanoke CBS affiliate WDBJ7, were shot during a live interview on 26 August by a disgruntled former station employee who later killed himself. The woman who was being interviewed by Parker was wounded and taken to hospital.
Andy Parker has urged state and federal lawmakers to take action on gun control, especially to keep firearms out of the hands of people who are mentally unstable. How many times are we going to see an incident like this happen? Newtown, Charleston, the movie theatres, you name it. Its gotta stop. It has got to stop! Parker said.
Nationally, locally, youve got to find a way to keep crazy people from getting guns. And Im relentless and Im not going to stop until something happens because I dont want to see another tragedy like this again.
Parker said the National Rifle Association, the powerful US gun lobby group, would contend that his daughter and Ward would have been safe if they themselves had been armed.
Wednesdays shootings were particularly shocking because they happened on air, and because of social media posts about the attack by Vester Flanagan, 41, the man police said carried out the shooting. His posts illustrated a trend of people wanting to commit murders and post images of the killings online to gain notoriety, Parkers boyfriend, Chris Hurst, told NBC.
