The NRA and the gun lobby seem to own every single Republican member of Congress.
RawStory reports that this is the view of Andy Parker, the father of slain journalist Alison Parker who was shot to death on the air one year ago.
Alison was a young TV news reporter in Virginia. Vibrant, beautiful, and very well loved. She and her cameraman, Adam Ward, were on assignment one morning. As they filmed an interview with a local business leader, a gunman approached and opened fire. Right there on live television, Alison and Adam were murdered by an unhappy former co-worker.
Alison’s father wrote an opinion piece in the New York Daily News yesterday where he angrily attacked the gun lobby and its stranglehold on Republican members of Congress. He is furious with those Congresspeople for their loyalty to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. He wrote:
“Politicians like Paul Ryan, Mike McCaul and Bob Goodlatte know better,” he wrote. “They’re not knuckle-draggers waving Confederate flags at Trump rallies, but they still fall in lockstep behind their orange-faced Fuhrer who promotes this ‘assault on the Second Amendment’ nonsense. Their bloody hands are egregiously in the pockets of the NRA and they are afraid to pull them out.”
The grieving father says that not a single day goes by when he and his family can escape the horror of their daughter’s brutal murder. His rage at the gun lobby and the lying NRA is raw and powerful. He has taken that anger and turned it into action.
Mr. Parker and his wife have met with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Tim Kaine (D-Va). He says that Democrats are no longer afraid to stand up to the NRA. He ended his heart wrenching piece with these words:
“Alison was a fierce competitor. She hated to lose and she got that fire from me. I said in an interview last year, “the gun lobby messed with the wrong people.” My conviction won’t waver, and I am buoyed by the support of all who want to spare the next family member from a preventable death.
The needle has moved, and I’m not going to lose this fight. I’m Alison’s dad.”
Featured image via YouTube screengrab.
