President Obama on Wednesday spoke out about the shooting during a live newscast earlier that morning that left two journalists dead, calling for action on gun control.
“It breaks my heart every time you read about or hear about these kinds of incidents,” he said during an interview with Philadephia television station WPVI.
“What we know is that the number of people who die from gun-related incidents around this country dwarfs any deaths that happen through terrorism,” he later added.
During an interview with Seattle television station KIRO, Obama said that the incident shows that legislators in the U.S. need to work to reduce gun violence.
“My heart goes out to them, to the families. Sadly, these kinds of events happen too often. It’s a testimony in this case to the fact that local journalists, they go into some tough places,” he said. “This wasn’t one of those situations. They should have been safe. I think it’s one more argument for why we need to look at how we can reduce gun violence in this country.”
Early Wednesday morning, a gunman shot and killed two journalists for Virginia television station WDBJ, reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward. A third individual, Vicki Gardner, was injured in the shooting. The suspect, who was identified as Vester Lee Flanagan, died hours later from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
