Advertisement

Father Of Slain Journalist Publicly Shames Lawmakers For Opposing Sensible Gun Reforms

After his daughter, WDBJ7 reporter Alison Parker, was gunned down on live television, Andy Parker announced that he will devote himself to preventing gun violence. During multiple TV appearances and in a Washington Post op-ed published on Sunday, Parker promises to “focus our attention on the legislators who are responsible for America’s criminally weak gun laws; laws that facilitate the access dangerous individuals have to firearms on a daily basis.”

An estimated 32 people die every day in the United States as a result of gun violence and during Alison Parker’s lifetime, more than 765,000 people lost their lives to guns.

With those figures in mind, Parker took to the Post to single out House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Virginia state Sens. John S. Edwards (D) and William M. Stanley Jr. (R), for actively resisting gun safety measures. “Goodlatte has had plenty of opportunity to bring up universal background check legislation and other gun violence prevention bills,” he notes. “[Goodlatte] has refused to lead on this issue, and he has done absolutely nothing to help contain the carnage we are seeing.” Edwards and Stanley have resisted similar measures on the state level, including one bill that “allows family members and/or law enforcement to petition a judge to temporarily remove firearms from an individual in crisis.”

On Friday, ThinkProgress released a video making the case for sensible gun reforms by annotating Parker’s compelling argument during an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo just two days after his daughter and photographer Adam Ward were gunned down. You can watch the video above.

Advertisement