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Such a sad day in journalism. My heartfelt prayers go out to the families of Adam Ward and Alison Parker, the two reporters who were gunned down mercilessly by a former co-worker Wednesday morning.
As you surely know by now, Ward a photographer, and Parker, a reporter, were simply doing their jobs, interviewing Vicki Gardner, executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce, when the shooter appeared out of the shadows. He killed Ward and Parker, and wounded Gardner. Thankfully, she is expected to be OK.
The shooter, a disgruntled employee, who does not deserve to have his named mentioned, eventually killed himself.
I wish he hadn’t shot those people. There is simply no reason for that. I also wish that if he was determined to die, that he would have just shot himself, first.
The shooter was easily apprehended thanks in large part to a shot taken by Ward’s camera. As Ward fell to the ground, his camera captured a glimpse of the shooter’s face. I will always believe that Ward, like a professional journalist would, aimed the camera at the shooter. He was about the business of getting the story done until his final breath.
Finally, while this is a national story, I hope the networks spend their time talking about the victims, and not the shooter. He does not deserve the attention.
It is yet another example of our society, and its violent tendencies, that are exacerbated by gun lax laws, which allow too many people who do not need a gun, to get a gun.
This is not politics on the left or right. It’s just a fact. We got a problem. We can’t go to the movies, school, or even church, without the threat of some sick maniac with a gun shooting the place up.
We have to work this out. There are no laws that will stop some of these tragedies from happening. Nonetheless, there are certainly things we can do better.
