Father of slain WDBJ7 journalist: 'We have to do something about crazy people getting guns'


On Wednesday's Kelly File, the father and boyfriend of slain journalist Alison Parker gave emotional interviews with host Megyn Kelly, sharing recollections of the young woman they said "excelled at everything she did."
Parker, 24, and her colleague Adam Ward, 27, were shot and killed on live television early Wednesday by a former employee of their news station, WDBJ7 in Roanoke, Virginia. Parker's father, Andy Parker, told Kelly that he had been crying all day, but "the anger is starting to creep in there because this shouldn't have happened to someone like Alison." He called the apparent shooter a "crazy man with a gun," and said it's time to "do something about crazy people getting guns.... This is a big story but next week it's not going to be story anymore and everyone's going to forget it." Parker said he spoke with Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), and told him he was "going to do something, whatever it takes, to get gun legislation, to shame people, shame legislators, into doing something about closing loopholes and background checks and making sure crazy people don't get guns."
Alison's boyfriend, Chris Hurst, an anchor for WDBJ7, said Parker and Ward had "no hate in their heart," and said he has covered mental illness issues for two years: "I think we need to be very careful with how we identify this man, and we don't label him and then discriminate against everybody else who has a mental illness in the country who needs access to services. But, clearly something went wrong here between him leaving our station and being able to purchase a gun and commit a premeditated act." Watch the interview below. Catherine Garcia
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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