|
 Two journalists, reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward of
Roanoke CBS affiliate WDBJ7, were shot during a live interview on
Wednesday by a disgruntled former station employee who later killed
himself. The woman who was being interviewed was wounded and
hospitalized.
Parker's father, Andy Parker, urged state and federal lawmakers to
take action on gun control, especially to keep firearms out of the
hands of people who were mentally unstable.
"I'm not going to rest until I see something happen. We've got to
have our legislators and congressmen step up to the plate and stop
being cowards about this," Parker told CNN, describing himself as a
supporter of the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
He said the National Rifle Association, the powerful U.S. gun lobby,
likely would contend that his daughter and Ward would have been safe
if they themselves had been armed.
"It wouldn't have made any difference," Parker said. "How many
Alisons is this going to happen to before we stop it?"
The United States had about 34,000 firearms deaths in 2013, with
almost two-thirds of them suicides, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
Sarah Trumble, a senior policy counsel for the Third Way, a
Washington think tank, said prospects for gun control had little
chance in the Republican-controlled Congress, despite intense media
focus on the Virginia killings.
"There's no playbook for what to do here," she said, but added that
changes were more likely in states than at a federal level. "The
states are really where the action is."
The last time there was a push at the federal level for tighter gun
control was following the massacre of 26 people, mostly children, at
the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in
December 2012.
President Barack Obama supported legislation that would have
extended background checks for gun buyers and banned rapid-firing
assault weapons. But despite national revulsion over the Newtown
killings it was rejected in April 2013 by the U.S. Senate, including
by some lawmakers in Obama's Democratic Party.
After Wednesday's shooting, Obama reiterated his frustration over
the issue of gun violence, saying the United States needs to do "a
better job of making sure that people who have problems, people who
shouldn't have guns, don't have them."
[to top of second column] |
MEASURES GO AHEAD
Although the issue is stalled at a national level, gun control
measures have gone ahead in the last two years in several U.S.
states, with 18 now requiring background checks for the sale of
handguns, said Colin Goddard, senior policy adviser for Everytown, a
gun control advocacy group backed by former New York Mayor Michael
Bloomberg.
Among other gains for advocates of gun control are a 2014 referendum
in Washington state for background checks on gun sales in which
backers of the initiative outspent the NRA. Oregon's governor in May
signed legislation for background checks on almost all buyers.
Nevada voters will go to the polls in a similar referendum next
year.
In Maine, Goddard said Everytown had started a campaign to get a
background checks question on the ballot. But gun rights advocates
notched a victory in the state last month when it became the fifth
to allow gun owners to carry concealed weapons without a permit.
In Virginia, where the NRA is headquartered, Democratic Governor
Terry McAuliffe called for gun controls after Wednesday's shooting.
But gun control legislation is unlikely to pass the
Republican-dominated legislature, said Stephen Farnsworth, a
pollster at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg,
Virginia.
"It's a very gun-friendly legislature and the shootings this week
will do little to change that," Farnsworth said. He added that polls
have shown more support for gun control among state residents than
among politicians.
Wednesday's 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, Parker's
boyfriend, Chris Hurst, told NBC.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Frances
Kerry)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
