Dad of slain reporter pledges to fight for stronger gun control

Associated Press

COLLINSVILLE, Va.

Andy Parker’s resolve to fight for gun control formed in the hours after his daughter was shot and killed on live television. In his first interviews after the tragedy, he briefly mentioned the issue as he eulogized Alison. By Friday, he was pledging a full-scale fight for tougher gun laws on national TV.

‘’This will be my mission,” he told reporters.

While his articulate Southern voice renews a push for gun restrictions, winning such measures has proved nearly impossible in the U.S., even after other high-profile tragedies garnered sympathy across the country and elicited similar pledges of activism from victim’s relatives.

And Parker is starting his battle in unforgiving territory. Gun ownership is part of the fabric of Southern states such as Virginia and communities such as Collinsville, a town of 7,000 where the Parker family has lived for 17 years.

“I’ve got to do something going forward that makes her life meaningful and will always be with me. And this is the way to do it,” Parker told AP in an interview earlier this week.

Parker gained a strong supporter in Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a gun-owner himself, who has promised to help fight for stronger background checks for gun buyers.

Yet it was unclear what measures would have prevented Vester Flanagan from buying the gun he used to kill reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward as they conducted a live interview Wednesday morning. With no apparent criminal record or other disqualifying incidents in his past, Flanagan passed a background check to buy his weapon.