On Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015, during a morning interview with local Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Vicki Gardner, 61, WDBJ-TV reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, were murdered by a disgruntled ex-employee, Vestor Flanagan (Bryce Williams), 42, with Mrs. Gardner suffering non-fatal wounds.
Shooting [Camera Man's POV]:
Vestor Flanagan later committed suicide by turning the same gun used to kill Parker and Ward on himself once troopers began to close in on him.
Since the incident, many questions have arisen about the situation, from "who is Vestor Flanagan" to "why were Parker and Ward his targets," but one notable inquiry that unsurprisingly has come to light are whether gun control restrictions should be tightened so as to avoid further tragedies like the “shot seen ‘round the world.”
While many will be asked this question, America, as well as much of the world, will be most intent on hearing the answer from the candidates for president of the United States. As the election grows closer, debates will surely touch upon the topic of the latest Virginia shooting, but will they be asking the right question?
Is this a question on gun control at all or rather a look at the state of mental health in our country?
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has already weighed in declining further restrictions on guns and proposing instead to address mental health in an attempt to avoid future shootings. Going so far as to say, "This isn't a gun problem, this is a mental problem," on CNN's "New Day." He added, "It's not a question of the laws, it's really the people."
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton would have to disagree, supporting stricter gun control laws. In a speech at the Des Moines Area Community College, Aug. 26, 2015, in Ankeny, Iowa, she stated, "We have got to do something about gun violence in America." She told reporters, "And I will take it on," later adding, "There's so much evidence that if guns were not so readily available, if there were universal background checks ... that maybe we could prevent this kind of carnage."
In a poll taken at Florida International University, students were asked, “Do you think the incident in which two journalists were shot and killed on live TV is a gun control [issue], a mental health one or a [combination of the two]?” 11 percent cited gun control as the problem, 39 percent called it a mental health issue and 50 percent took the middle ground, saying they both could do with more study and regulation.
While these findings have more students siding with Trump than Clinton, due to survey size and differing views based on the wide range of backgrounds in the U.S., and the constant new information being discovered about the shooting -- like Flanagan’s accusations of racial and homophobic abuse during his time at the WDBJ-TV station -- the question will surely be an exciting topic in upcoming political discussions.
