For Alison ― The Murder of a Young Journalist and a Father's Fight for Gun Safety

A father’s account of the story that captivated America, the murder of his beautiful daughter, Alison Parker, on live television, and his heroic fight for commonsense gun laws in the aftermath.

On August 26, 2015, Emmy Award-winning twenty-four-year-old reporter Alison Parker was murdered on live television, along with her twenty-seven-year-old colleague, photojournalist Adam Ward. Their interviewee, Vicki Gardner, was also shot, but survived. This was yet another of the national, headline-grabbing gun murders shocking America: the difference this time was that it unfolded on live television, on WDBJ7, a CBS affiliate station, and the video would be shared on other stations and spread over the internet like wildfire. It’s had hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube alone.

In the wake of his daughter’s murder, Andy Parker became a national advocate for commonsense gun safety legislation. The night of the murder, with his emotions still raw, he went on Fox News and vowed to do “whatever it takes to end gun violence in America.” In For Alison, he shares who Alison was, not just a pretty, young reporter, but also vibrant, kind, motivated, with a bright future stolen from her. He also shares what the day of the murder was like, when he called Alison over and over again, always getting her voicemail, and the journey he’s been on since her death: as he’s become a media powerhouse, a go-to each time another shooting rocks the national consciousness; a political fighter, working with crusaders like Gabby Giffords and Michael Bloomberg; a force battling those who say school shootings are fabricated; and a member of the prayer is not enough movement.

For Alison will release in sync with the one-year anniversary of the Parkland school shooting and at a time when guns are the third leading cause of death for American children.

Andy Parker is the father of Alison Parker, a journalist killed on live television, and a national gun reform advocate who has appeared on all major news networks—CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox News—on programs such as CBS Sunday Morning, Face the Nation, Anderson Cooper 360, Hardball with Chris Matthews, The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell, and many more; he has written op-eds for a variety of publications, such as Washington Post, New York Daily News, Medium, CNN.com, Huffington Post, and Newsweek; and has been interviewed for publications ranging from the New York Times to Time magazine. Andy has worked to develop commonsense gun legislation with activists such as the Giffords organization, the Brady Campaign, Everytown for Gun Safety, and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. Together with his wife, Barbara, Parker runs the For Alison Foundation, which creates opportunities for children in southern Virginia to experience the arts. Previously, Parker was a Broadway actor, a politician, and the owner of an executive recruiting firm. He lives in Martinsville, VA.

Senator Tim Kaine has represented the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States Senate since 2013. He is co-chair of the bipartisan Career and Technical Education (CTE) Caucus and a member of a wealth of Senate committees, including Armed Services; Budget; Foreign Relations; and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP). He is ranking member of the Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee and the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism. Prior to working at the Senate, he was a graduate of Harvard Law School and served as the 38th lieutenant governor of Virginia from 2002 to 2006 and the 70th governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010. Senator Kaine was the Democratic Party's nominee for Vice President of the United States in the 2016 election, running alongside Hillary Clinton. Senator Kaine lives in Richmond, VA.

Ben R. Williams is a Virginia-based writer and editor, and a reporter at the Martinsville Bulletin. He lives in Bassett, VA.