A TTAG reader called me yesterday to complain that we were overly focused on the Roanoke TV killer, rather than the victims. I’m posting this video to at least partially redress the balance. I regret the fact thatĀ father of slain TV journalist Alison Parker has decided to dedicate himself to increasing gun control, which would have done nothing to save his daughter. And wouldn’t prevent future, similar tragedies. But I understand Andy Parker’sĀ desire to give Alison’s life meaning in the best way he knows how. Our thoughts and prayers are with the survivors.
Sandy Hook ring a bell?
(D)bag Whack-a-Mole.
Knock one down, another pops up.
until someone unplugs the machine or knocks out the power at Chuck-E-Cheese.
What that animal did, he could have done with a steak knife. Or a crow bar, or a bat. Ambushes are rarely, if ever stopped.
It happened on the Japanese held islands in WWII. They called it a Bonsai attack! Happened a lot.
My childhood makes soo much more sense now that I know where the term “Bonzai” originated from. It was always screamed during surprises, never realized I didn’t know what it meant.
A bonsai is a heavily pruned miniature tree. Banzai! is what the Japanese soldiers yelled in WWII.
(Public service announcement provided by your friendly neighborhood copy editor. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.)
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Japanese vocabulary nazi here …
Bonsai is a tree that has been “trained” to stay very, very small.
Banzai means “may you live 10,000 years!” and is the battle cry of a suicidal charge.
The two words sound alike to barbarians like us, but are pronounced differently by Japanese speakers.
Butt dew knot worry, eye new watt ewe mint.
ETA: Ing beat me to it
“Bonsai” refers to Japanese miniature trees.
Given he stood RIGHT next to the victims with his gun pointed at them and NO ONE noticed he could have easily done it will a knife, a brick, or a sharp freakin’ spook for that matter.
………………..and the fact that he stood there with a gun pointed for some time , I understand , and then lowered the gun at one point and only then raised it back and fired , says if someone had been paying better attention and perhaps been armed themselves the whole thing could have been stopped before it started . I hate to jump onto someone so soon after such a tragic loss but seeing that this dad starts with his mindless babble before they even put his daughter in the ground makes me think , he started it , so I’m going to state that he maybe should have taught his daughter to be more cautious and aware of her surroundings and she might still be over for lunch .
I’m sorry I posted that comment . Please forgive me . I have no business being so callous and self righteous and I do ask the people here on TTAG and God almighty , forgive me .
No apology necessary for speaking the truth, in fact thank you for the refreshing honesty towards how people cede their responsibility to protect the gift of life.
“says if someone had been paying better attention and perhaps been armed themselves the whole thing could have been stopped before it started”
-Defending yourself and others from evil men, and being situationally aware is only for those paranoid, limp dicked, racist gun owners. This could have been stopped after seeing the bastard approach the cameraman, by a concealed carrier, who is skilled in the law of the quick and the dead.
“Iām going to state that he maybe should have taught his daughter to be more cautious and aware of her surroundings and she might still be over for lunch.”
-It is easier for some to blame others for their inadequacies, and widely accepted value by the statist.
Mark, she would have died if the killer had nothing more than a hammer. This whole party was situationally clueless. The killer probably got bored and opened fire just for excitement.
One of the terrible burdens of being a journalist is the necessity for lowering one’s situatioal awareness. Crews typically have folks approach on a regular basis, folks that just want to be part of the action, try to get in the background, and of course sometimes get their 3 seconds of fame doing something stupid. Reporters are trained to focus 99% on their presence on camera and photogs usually have one eye in a viewfinder and ears full of sound monitors and return feeds from a producer.
News people wouldn’t last very long if they glanced/recognized/addressed every individual that walked up to a live shot. It comes with the territory as they say. As it has been mentioned… there was just nothing that they could have done that day to stop this.
I’m a photog (not in news anymore) and I carry every day. I’m glad that with my job I have the luxury to have situational awareness as I roll.
I know guys , I’m not necessarily sorry for the content of what I said but the for timing . I was a little put off that a dad could be doing TV interviews just hours after his daughter was gunned down but I can’t judge why people do what they do in distress . I do understand the situational awareness issues with news people doing live interviews and realize she had full attention on her task at hand which is what we want our employees to do so I am not necessarily faulting her judgment or lack of but in light of this incident it would be smart for other station managers send out someone with these crews to watch their backs , as it were .
The main reason for my apology stems from the fact that my 20 year old daughter drowned in a flash flood in 2007 and the news stations reporting the story made a big deal about how stupid it is to drive through high water when the real truth was , in her particular situation , the water came up onto the road so fast , she had no other choice , and their reporting , in my state of grief , made me want to severely beat their asses , I later decided it was simply a lack of understanding on their part of my ( our ) pain and suffering .
Like I have said on other comments , I personally would have no problem watching a live broadcast and the one reporting had a Super Blackhawk hanging off their hip . If you get my drift . God bless and thanks for the back up .
Here are some possible thoughts about this situation.
News people whether out in the field or in the studio are
so indoctrinated to being “on the mark” to make the
presentation flawless and perfect, to be the first to report a story, there is no apparent ability for them to react and thus break “mark” to respond to unexpected circumstances,
whereby possibly protecting themselves.
The killer in this case was not seeking a random person.
He had these 2 people in mind. There could have been others from the station he felt animosity or slighted by,
but these two were mentioned directly in his ramble.
Was he either stalking and following from the station, or was it
a crime of opportunity- like; the reporter and cameraman were in the same spot (location) though the local morning newscast making
for easy access. Thus jumping , at an impulse, into the car and driving to the reporters broadcast location.
He was so close when he fired, he violated what anyone, would consider
“personal space” , Reporters seem to be taught to ignore the encroachments
making themselves even more vulnerable.
Being vigilant and aware may not always save us, but there is a much greater chance of survival.
In about 4 hours time, a soon-to-be attacker could:
1) purchase some steel flat stock for about $10.
2) use a belt sander to put a wicked edge on most of its length
3) heat the blade over charcoal and quench it to increase its hardness
4) wrap duct tape super tight for a decent handle
5) practice a few strikes on a watermelon or similar
6) touch up the edge
At that point a soon-to-be attacker has a short sword which they could use to kill the reporter and her camera operator just as quickly and easily as that scumbag did with a handgun. One good strike to the neck of the victim will be a fatal injury — and quite possibly even decapitate the victim. The first strike is a given because no one sees it coming. And the second strike is a given if the attacker immediately strikes the camera operator because the camera operator would not have time to recognize the attack and move away before receiving the strike.
Of course the attacker could achieve the same result just as easily with an electric lighter and two 1-quart sized ice cream containers filled with gasoline. Douse both the reporter and the camera operator at the same time, light the reporter, and then the camera operator. Walk away.
Even if we could magically remove all firearms from existence, it still would not have saved those two innocent victims.
Baseball bat or hammer would work.
So the PoTG would rather these people not have been killed, with anything at all. While everyone else seems more upset that they were killed with a gun.
As crass as it is to ask, would these types of people have actually preferred to see them slain with a knife or axe? Seriously? They were murdered…by a murderer…intent on murdering people….on television.
Why the obsession over the implement of choice? The guy was a MURDERER! He wouldn’t become NOT A MURDERER, if only he didn’t have access to a gun. WTF, people!?
How about nut control…..if there were no guns he would have stabbed them……guns have nothing to do with this……it is mental illness period…….let’s stop mental illness….. I don’t hear anybody saying that……you can’t put these people in institutions ……they have rights…..well then be prepared for the fallout…..people will die one way or another.
WEAKNESS IS PROVACATIVE
How many lives have been lost, or currently at risk, from how wet-sh_t these a-holes are?
Don’t give these idiots any power, they will always (only) use it against YOU.
If someone says “I can’t protect you until you ____________.” only the first half of that statement is true.
āCommon sense will tell us that the power which hath endeavored to subdue us, is of all others the most improper to defend us. Conquest may be effected under the pretence of friendship; and ourselves, after a long and brave resistance, be at last cheated into slaveryā¦. Wherefore, if we must here-after protect ourselves, why not do it for ourselves? Why do it for another?ā ( Paine Common Sense pg. 47)
Evil is not the result of a mental illness; much effort has been spent on trying to pinpoint a biological flaw that drives someone to cold-blooded murder, and to date I think only Charles Whitman had anything physically wrong (a brain tumor).
Evil is not the result of existential sickness, or any other such thing that can be pinpointed. It is simply the lack of a soul, and a hatred of anything that is fine or good in this world.
Unfortunately there is no possible way we can predict when or where it’ll choose to pop up. We can only be vigilant and strike it down once it’s been identifed. No amount of mental-health screening or treatment can alleviate it. Evil can only be treated by erasing those who exhibit it from the face of the earth once they expose themselves for what they are
Saw him a few minutes ago on the news. He kept mentioning the gun lobby and cowardly politicians, even though the only one responsible in this is the murderer himself. All emotion, no logic while he was being interviewed.
What is it with these mass-murdering cowards and passive-aggressively blaming the tools for their depravity? They don’t have the fortitude to admit that *they’re the monsters just like they don’t have the fortitude to live like an adult with all the risks and disappointments that it entails.
I’m willing to bet he was an anti long before this incident.
Saying “they’re coming after journalists now” is way off the mark.
He apparently doesn’t know the circumstances surrounding his own daughters death.
Absolutely what I was thinking. No parent should ever have to outlive their child but….. this guy isn’t offering any opinions he didn’t have before this. Unfortunately due to this unfortunate incident, he has a microphone and a lot of influential pain.
He’s a raw nerve right now. Father lost his little girl. I feel for him. In a year from now if he’s still seeking tighter gun control I will be happy to tear him a new one. But not today.
I posted a comment about this in another story. I feel horribly kicking a man when he is down. Let him speak his peace albeit irrational.
Screw that, he and his former future son-in-law MUST be destroyed (figuratively) BEFORE THEIR campaign to strip law-abiding American citizens of their Constitutionally guaranteed rights gains ANY traction. Who wants to bet these two parasites get an invitation to The White House (maybe not since they’re loved ones weren’t black or committing a crime when shot) though I’m sure they’ll appear at a Congressional hearing.
They BOTH look like limpwrists, I wonder if they’re meeting men in public parks/stairwells/restrooms using Grindr.
And this is the only reason why the fight for our rights is as difficult as it is. Too many gun owners are too scared to actually stand up to those who want to take away our rights because “Well, it might hurt their feelings…”.
Pubes. At the end of the day I have to look at this mug in the mirror. I will not lower myself to the level of the bloody shirt wavers.
Fight with honor or join the side with no honor.
I, for one, have no respect for this. . . whatever he is. What kind of father can go on the TV news and stump for a political message the day his daughter was murdered? I cannot fathom such a reaction to such a terrible situation.
^This!
My condolences for this terrible loss.
There is always some lingering unanswered questions when it comes to crazed murderers who kill people and then kill themselves. Questions like – why my daughter? Why my son? The murderer even shot Vicki Gardner who had absolutely nothing to do with him. Then, like others before them, killed themselves instead of answering for their crimes.
Can I get you phone number too, Rob? Just in case I want to complain also.
It’s right there on the home page under Contact.
I TOO feel that the Wackjob killer has been getting TOO much face-time. It is one thing to talk about what happened, And another making the killer’s face burned into our head.
His face prominently displayed does nothing to or adds nothing to minimize or prevent
a heinous crime such as this.
I’m am sorry for the father’s ( families) loss and his mis-directed New found mission.
It could have just have easily been an automobile that took the journalists lives.
A pity his idea of “giving her life meaning” is an attempt to strip his fellow Americans of their rights. I’m sure there must have been other, more honorable options available.
Let Andy Parker waste the rest of his life pursuing a beggar’s banquet if he wants to. I really don’t give a shit about him. A man’s true character is revealed by tragedy, and he doesn’t have any.
His daughter gets shot and now he’s going to fix the world? Hubris has a new name.
Well said, he is shaming himself. And all of the leftys jumping on this to push their agenda are exploitative drones.
Try burying a child and then get back to us on what is and what is not true character. Have a little compassion.
Nope. Not an ounce of compassion for a fool who is whoring out the corpse of his daughter for his 15 minutes.
True.
Wrongheaded… The man is emoting, not thinking. We all grieve differently. I sure hope I don’t outlive my Kids, this is beyond tragicā¦ Hope he comes to his senses…
I think it’s a safe bet he was an anti-gun extremist before this happened.
I’ll give Mr. Parker a pass; let him decide how to live with his grief. I pray I’ll never walk in his shoes, and since I havent, I won’t judge him.
FLAME DELETED
In a related story, father of rape victim calls for castration of all men.
^ This!!!
Every male is a law abiding citizen … right up until the moment he rapes a woman. Since every male could be a rapist, that must be justification to castrate all of them. Or not. Neither do violent criminals justify “castrating” (disarming) us — the good people who have not sought to harm anyone.
My heart goes out to this man. I pray for his family and I am heartbroken at his loss. But being a victim of gun crime doesn’t make you an expert on guns, gun laws, crime or public policy. The death of his daughter doesn’t trump my Constitutional rights. I am sorry.
Having buried my first born son. I know, all too well, the need to place blame. And I also know that blame is usually misplaced.
Respect and condolences.
+1.
Bless you. That hurts me to even think about.
Never goes away does it Gman .
God bless you brother .
… and people ask me why I have zero pity for the “survivors”… It’s because of clowns like this scumbag.
Pity? We don’t want your pity. There is nothing you can do for us. Try searching your soul for a little empathy before attacking motives you cannot possibly understand.
My first born son died July 18th 2005. Recently married with a newborn child, he was just beginning life. The troublesome child in him was gone. I saw the look of profound love and wonderment in his eyes as he held his child, our first grandson. No parent should ever have to bury a child. There is an ever present pain deep inside your gut that never fades. For the rest of your life, the missing will creep up at any moment and fill your eyes with tears and darken your heart. This feeling isnāt something you can share. It is personal, your burden to bear, each in our own way. No two people deal with this intolerable grief in the same way. It tears at your very soul as it does right now. The one immutable fact I learned was that we grieve not for the loss, we grieve for what we have left unsaid and undone. For it gnaws at the soul forever at those things we can no longer do or say. Amends never to be made.
Cry me a river.
Come back to me when you loose half of your entire family to the exact same garbage that this clown supports.
Come back when you get to sit with your uncle who’s dying of black lung from being sentenced to two decades of hard labor in a Soviet mine shaft because he dared to let starving children swipe the occasional handful of grain from regulated wheat shipments.
Come talk to me when you aren’t even given the common courtesy of knowing where your executed family members are buried after you’ve had everything you own ripped away from you.
Loss?
You don’t even know the meaning of the word.
Death is a preferable alternative to socialism. My family know that the hard way.
Sic Semper Tyannis
Dude…this isn’t a contest. You both have valid points to make. Gman just laid his soul bare in public, and the least you could do is accord him a little civility. Especially considering you’re on the same side.
No. There is only two sides. Freedom and evil. If you support communism, socialism, or gun control we are not on the same side and I don’t care WHY you’re on the other side. There is zero excuse for supporting tyranny.
I must apologize. It is wrong of me to chastise you as if I am the only one who has ever dealt with loss. That said, what is all this worth fighting for if we lose sight of our humanity?
Deo Vindice!
I’d rather be a mad free man than a sane slave.
For Gman ;
Normal is forever gone when our children leave us here on earth to go on without them .
Not sure if the human race will ever let reason trump emotion.
Yeah he could’ve done this
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=94715
But they will never compare the two.
Sad. Very sad.
I teach my wife and girls too be aware of your sorroundings.
Sutuational awareness could gave prevented this tragedy,not gun control.
Liberal want gun elimination, not control
I totally agree that situational awareness could have made a difference. They knew this guy. They knew he was crazy. I imagine they didnt think he was “that crazy”. Maybe they were situationally aware but ignored him because they didnt see him as a real threat, just an ahole they knew.
I feel for this father! Who wouldn’t. The problem isn’t guns folks. The problem is that those big hospitals that we used to lock people up and away from society, have all been shut down, since the 1960’s and accelerated during the 1980’s. We moved to “community based” treatments. Translation, they now live amongst us!
This man, was evil with evil in his heart. Nothing you can do, can prevent this! This killer was a journalist, who was fired and seemed to have the whole victim status covered at every angle. He was black, gay and people were mean to him. His solution, kill those he felt wronged him.
News flash! He passed your background checks, because unlike a Tom Cruise movie, you can’t see into the future and then go back and stop him.
This killer was a coward, as they all are. He took his own life, because again, thats what cowards do.
But hear me and hear me clearly. The EVIL is not the NRA! The NRA is myself and the other 5 million law abiding gun owners. We are the number one trainer of civilians and law enforcement. Not, Everytown for Gun Safety, that doesn’t teach a damn class!
Gun control is failed policy, period and I am damn tired of being blamed for deaths, none of us committed. Where is the President talking about the 40 people shot and killed in Chicago, every weekend? Silence. Why? Because gun control doesn’t work and criminals don’t obey your laws. I am pretty sure Illinois has a law against murder, but it’s off the charts in Chicago. Silence from everyone except local Chicago news.
I’m truly sorry for his loss. But the gun did not just find its way over to his daughter all on its own.
So if the weapon were a knife, would he dedicate himself to knife control? Not trying to be insensitive here… just sayin.
A grieving fool is still a fool.
He’s just doubling down on a whole host of asinine policies and freedom forfeitures, the likes of which were at the rancid root of his daughter’s death.
If he gets his way, there will be more senseless deaths of disarmed women. No doubt he’ll again misinterpret that as the inadequacy of gun control, not the futility of it.
This guy just lost his daughter. He gets a pass. Its the folks that will use him to further their political agenda that are deserving of the hottest corner of hell.
I don’t think he gets a pass, certainly not to push for policies that will leave more grieving fathers. He’s choosing to politicize his tragedy and his misconceptions need to be refuted. Personal attacks are obviously out of the question, as they should be for anyone who wishes to be taken seriously. The only reason to give him a pass is the worry that he will win based on appeals to emotion, made more visceral because of his loss.
If he weren’t using his grief to allow more harm for others he wouldn’t need a pass.
Would you or do you give Sarah Brady, Carolyn McCarthy, Gabby Giffords, or Trayvon Martin’s mother a “pass” too?
Parents using the deaths of their kids to further their own ambitions and make it all about them. It happens all the time down
I’m glad he’s wanting to dedicate his life to his daughter’s memory, but he should chose to oppose the real evil. If you go to the HuffPo, Daily Kos or even the New York Times, you will find the kind of hatred and anger that this piece of evil spewed repeated hundreds of times a day. Blaming a gun in the hand of someone mentally ill is completely avoiding reality.
1. It had nothing to do with the gun.
2. The Roanoke murderer was not insane.
His rationality may be in question but his sanity is not, as far as I’m concerned. If this guy is insane, then you would have to say that Progressivism is an indicator of insanity.
Evil exists. Evil is chosen, not made. This guy said the “right things” and believed the “right thoughts.” He governed his life on feelings rather than reason. He was a good Progressive victim. Before Hillary and Obama start blaming guns or the NRA, they need to take a look at the message they’ve been preaching for years and then take a long, hard look in the mirror. Should they be surprised that someone actually does what they advocate?
Parents using the deaths of their kids to further their own ambitions and make it all about them. It happens all the time now!
Just last year; Richard Martinez, father of one of Elliot Rodger’s victims, jumped on his kid’s grave to push for the anti-gun agenda.
It’s a piss-poor example of a parent who will soak a shirt in their own murdered child’s blood and wave it in an effort to remove the rights of others. That they’re bereaved doesn’t mean we should give them a pass.
I will never forget watching that evil monster shooting his daughter and her fellow newsperson(and the interviewee-Godspeed with your healing). AND I will never forget pops hours later putting on a performance(he is an actor) excoriating the NRA. I love my wife and kids and could never blame anyone but the shooter. NO pass from me(my sympathy ended quickly for the Brady’s and the Kelly’s too). NONE of wants evil lunatics shooting people.
He says, “crazy person with a gun.” Better to focus on the mental illness than the gun. Flannagan was powder keg that harbored this resentment and hatred for years. No laws will magically wipe out weapons completely from the face of the earth. Flannagan was big enough to kill her with his hands.
BOTH Andy Parker and his formerly soon-to-be son-in-law can go screw themselves, watching their interview last night on FOX News it was abundantly clear they are devout anti-gun Liberals (Democrats) who intend on exploiting a tragedy for “cultural” change (sound familiar?).
I for one am relieved THAT gene pool has been disrupted because we DON’T need anymore Jan Bradys’, Gabby Giffords’, or Carolyn McCarthys’ spewing forth anti-2nd Amendment propaganda using emotional arguments in order to influence the uninformed and those that can be easily mislead.
Correction:
My post should read “Sarah Brady”
Jan Brady did feel ignored, and felt everything was “Marcia Marcia Marcia”!
This guy blames Guns and the NRA instead of the Racist nut job who killed his daughter.
My condolences to the confused.
no no no no no no.. you got that all wrong…..he can’t be racist. Only white people are racist..
This mans evil act was 2 years in the making. They are fortunate he didn’t walk into the newsroom with a bomb and blow everyone to kingdoms come.
I have no sympathy for this deranged fascist. So his loss allows him to infringe upon other’s natural rights and endanger their lives? I don’t think so. I don’t care what your loss is, if you turn into just another fascist statist, you’re as much an enemy as any other.
Funny how now this scumbag has turned into a hateful, blind, vengeful psychopath, just like the man who killed his daughter. The lowest of the low, no surprise he’s a leftist. Only the subhuman left could be so evil.
Just another blood dancer.
This is your typical Progressive, and we should not expect him to change because his 24 year old embryo was murdered by a racist monster. He is going to exploit this tragedy for his cause. I know his type, for I have a few relatives just like him. Progressivism is his religion.
Sadly this man thinks his sons life has more value than the Constitution, and the bill of Rights in which millions fought and died! This man wants to seek revenge for his son but instead turns his wrath on the non guilty, basically he is a Sheeple who wants revenge but lashes out at those who wish him and his family no harm! does he not understand that a person using a knife could have done the same job just as quick! I think not!
but he speaks from self righteousness, I’m better than you, my son was better than you so I’m going to screw you! those News reporters chose too be their! why Money? Glory? name recognition? Their death are meaning less if used for Revenge, this man supports Anti- American values out of revenge because his Holiness is better than us common people
Anyone who would restrict or abrogate my fundamental Rightful Liberty, whether themselves or via force of government, is an enemy.
Simply put…EXPLETIVES DELETED to any who support or agree with this blood dancing weasel.
Well boo hoo! What if she died of a medical mistake, which kill over 400,000 Americans each year? Gun deaths 30,000 or so.
What if she got lung cancer or some other tobacco related illness which kill another 400,000 Americans each year? All gun deaths, 30,000 or so. He should dedicate himself to something that really matters, not a fallacy!
Yeah his daughter got killed by a nut case who if he DIDN’T have a gun, would have killed them anyway.
Sorry for his loss … but he can shove his self-righteous movement. Our own government was
very active (allegedly) in it’s WAR ON DRUGS and was an abysmal failure. Why do these people seem to think it will suddenly be a different world if they get what they want? Foolish thinking!