The father of a Virginia television reporter who was murdered on air in August is calling for “commonsense gun control legislation” on behalf of the political committee of Democratic governor Terry McAuliffe.
In an email to supporters of McAuliffe with the subject line “Alison’s Dad,” Andy Parker writes it is his “life’s work to implement effective and reasonable safeguards” against gun violence. Parker is the father of Alison Parker, the 24-year-old reporter at Roanoke’s WDBJ who was shot live on air earlier this year by a disgruntled former coworker. Parker’s cameraman Adam Ward was also killed.
“Gun violence is far too common, and I plan to do whatever it takes to stop more tragedies like this from occurring,” Parker writes. “I know that in order to actually make a difference and get commonsense gun control legislation passed, we need to get involved and we need to participate.”
The email continues:
We have 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. We need to do better than legislators who refuse to bring up universal background check legislation and oppose sensible gun reforms like the gun violence restraining order that was a part of SB 1429, while cashing checks from the National Rifle Association. We can’t afford to continue with business as usual.
The email is paid for by Common Good VA, a political committee set up by McAuliffe in March 2014, shortly after he became governor. There are two links in the email that take users to terrymcauliffe.com, where they can sign a petition.
