by LowellAndy Parker is the father of former WDBJ7 reporter and Martinsville, Virginia native Alison Parker, who was gunned down on live television in late August while conducting an interview. I couldn't agree more with him on the deplorable Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), utter tool of the NRA.
I also agree that it's utterly laughable to call a murderer "pro-life" in any way. In fact, many people who call themselves "pro-life" are not consistently so -- on the death penalty or war, for instance. More accurately, these people are anti-abortion, not "pro-life" (note: supporters of women having access to full family planning services, including safe and legal abortion if necessary, are accurately called "pro-choice"). Finally, Parker is correct that "too easy access to guns," including by far-right extremists and assorted "wingnuts," is a huge problem.
As for the Republican presidential candidates, can you imagine the volume of their outrage right now if the shooter in this case had been a Muslim (or liberal, for that matter) who attacked an evangelical church? It would be deafening. Instead, what we've overwhelmingly gotten in this case, a white man with a gun shooting up a Planned Parenthood clinic, has been silence from 2016 Republican presidential candidates. Fascinating, eh?
