Great job by Virginia’s Andy Parker on Face the Nation this morning (see video below) talking about how to stop gun violence. Parker specifically mentioned the importance of GVROs – Gun Violence Restraining Orders. According to Parker, he and his wife Barbara “testified in front of a Virginia Senate committee on this very issue,” and “the chairman of the committee [Sen. Mark Obenshain] looked at me and said, ‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ and then they voted it down on party lines…they did the same thing [on bumpstocks].” So, “at this point, the Republican Party…they’re the party of the NRA, that’s just the fact.” So true.
Parker also talked about the “backlash” he’s received for his activism, from what he calls a “cruel” “legion of hoaxers” who call activists “crisis actors” and even have claimed that his murdered daughter “has had plastic surgery and is living in Israel someplace; the level of cruelty is just unimaginable,” but “it’s enabled by a president that has unhinged tweets every single day, you know arming teachers.” As for Trump’s “listening session” on gun violence this past week, Parker said correctly that it was “pathetic”; that the notion of arming teachers is “crazy”; and that when Trump had to hold a note care reminding him to say “I hear you” that’s “unimpressive to say the least.” Great stuff, spot on – thank you Andy Parker for all you do, and also for your courage and activism every single day.
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