I’ve been struggling with my thoughts on the Virginia news team shooting. My heart truly aches for the people involved. Adam Ward’s fiancée was working the control booth when he died. Alison Parker’s boyfriend works at the same station. They all knew Vester Flanagan. Their families have been forced to watch their murders over and over again. They’re being victimized twice.
Why did he target these people? He apparently had what anyone else would call a mild run-in with two of them. Why did he shoot Vicki Gardner? They had never met. She was the director of the local Chamber of Commerce. What possible beef could he have with a random person being interviewed by a news team?
Did he target them because of race? Because he was mentally ill? Because he was evil?
And how did he know they were going to be there? Did he stake out the station, then follow a particular news van when it headed out for an assignment? Was he being that random in his efforts? Or was it somehow more methodical? Had he somehow figured out their schedule?
Dylan Roof was clear about wanting to start a race war, and there was a lot of coverage about that. Vester Flanagan made it clear he was responding to Roof’s call for a race war, but instead of talking about race, we’re talking about guns.
Flanagan apparently bought the guns legally, making a down payment within days of the Charleston church shooting in June 2015. He passed a background check. Yet the first thing heard as the dust was still settling was that we need universal background checks.
It wouldn’t have stopped Vester Flanagan. He passed one. He bought his guns from a dealer, and passed a federal background check, despite a troubling work history that saw him escorted from WDBJ-TV by police officers.
How was he able to pass a background check after that?
Because no one did anything.
None of his previous employers forced him to seek help. No one filed charges. He passed the background check because there wasn’t anything there to raise any red flags despite a work history that should have had alarm bells ringing from Norfolk to Roanoke.
He passed the background check because no one said anything.
Background checks can’t reveal what isn’t there.
Flanagan’s previous employers probably feared a defamation lawsuit from him if they told people what really happened. That will continue to happen until employers are held responsible for proper reporting of a previous employee’s work history. I look forward to a lawsuit by Alison Parker’s father against Flanagan’s employers prior to WDBJ-TV, for failing to disclose the issues they had. Perhaps if they had done so, Flanagan wouldn’t have come in contact with his daughter.
And finally, I think we need to quit calling something “item violence.” Then again, we never refer to “knife violence,” “rope violence,” or “gas violence,” do we? It almost sounds like people who use the term “gun violence” have an issue with guns, and forget that there’s always a person holding a gun and pulling the trigger.
Share your thoughts!