((PKG)) PARKLAND – PART 3
((Banner: American Divide))
((Producers: Beth Mendelson, Tom Detzel, Cliff Hackel))
((Camera: Suli Yi, Michael Burke, Mino Dargakis, Austin Ao, Alexander Gilles))
((Music: Roger Hooper, Lenny Williams))
((Map: Fairfax, Virginia
Washington, D.C.))
((Locator: Road to Change, Fairfax, VA - August 4, 2018))
((NATS))
Hey, hey. Ho, ho. The NRA has got to go. Hey, hey. Ho, ho.
That's my flag. That's my flag.
The second amendment is our right to self-defense.
My daughter Jamie was shot with an AR15 at school.
((LESLIE COCKBURN, DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE, 5TH DISTRICT, VIRGINIA))
I think the Parkland students are absolutely magnificent. They are getting voters out, younger voters on a single issue.
((NATS))
But someone who is taking medication for a mental illness, should not be allowed to buy a firearm.
There's kids out here that have lost somebody that they were close with, due to gun violence, due to a gun like that, and you're out here in full force with it, and, listen, it's your right. I get that. But to have the whole thing out and on display, I don't, I just think that might be a little excessive, that's all.
I have that right as an American, and I have a right as a Virginian as well, because I am, I’m allowed to open carry in this state.
((DENVER RIGGLEMAN, REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE, 5TH DISTRICT, VIRGINIA))
You know, I'm a strong Second Amendment supporter, you know, based on where I'm from here in the fifth district. The Second Amendment is important now because we've had some very bad and awful emotional events that happened around the United States. But I believe that when these emotional and awful things happen, I think that reasonable discussion, sort of, goes out the window.
((Source: Cockburn campaign))
((Locator: Rappahannock County, Virginia))
((JOHN MCCASLIN, EDITOR, RAPPAHANNOCK NEWS))
The fifth district gets as close as you can get to Montana and still be within 60 miles of the nation's capital. That stretches from North Carolina to west of Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. This district, being as rural as it is, people have guns. There's no doubt about it. The people locally in this district want to keep with tradition. They do like their guns.
((NATS))
((AUDREY REGNERY, RESIDENT, RAPPAHANNOCK COUNTY, VIRGINIA))
This is a .22. I use this basically for practice when I'm down here. This is a Glock .42 which I carry. I think that the NRA is a good organization. I have to go through eight hours of training with them before I'm allowed to have my conceal carry. And without an organization such as the NRA, that does these things, I think we'd be a lot worse shape.
((LEONARD STEINHORN, PROFESSOR OF COMMUNICATION, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY))
The NRA has a big impact politically. They make a lot of legislators scared because of their ability to mobilize their voters and they have an outsized impact because they are concentrated in certain parts of each state that ultimately can swing an election in favor of their particular candidate.
((JOHN MCCASLIN, EDITOR, RAPPAHANNOCK NEWS))
Gun control is a big issue nationally. It's come up here in the fifth district of Virginia during the debates. We hosted one here in Little Washington, Virginia.
((Locator: 5th Congressional District Debate, Washington, VA - September 5, 2018))
((NATS))
((MODERATOR))
What's missing under current law that you want to work for?
((DENVER RIGGLEMAN, REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE, 5TH DISTRICT, VIRGINIA))
I don't think, right now, as far as the Second Amendment's concerned, there's anything missing under current law.
((MODERATOR))
You're satisfied.
((DENVER RIGGLEMAN, REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE 5TH DISTRICT, VIRGINIA))
I'm satisfied. Yes, I am.
((MODERATOR))
Now, there has been a presence in Washington, particularly since the murders in Parkland, Florida earlier this year, of people who are not satisfied with federal law.
((LESLIE COCKBURN, DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE, 5TH DISTRICT, VIRGINIA))
Well, this issue has changed dramatically this year. There are a lot of angry mothers out there and they see their children having to go to school every day in fear. But I do see a demand from Democratic women that we must address these issues, and also being with the Parkland kids, you really feel the power of this whole new generation to lead us into better gun legislation.
((LESLIE COCKBURN, DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE, 5TH DISTRICT, VIRGINIA))
I think the reason why gun violence and gun legislation is very, very important is the demand from constituents. I hear it all the time. I've never seen it like this in Virginia, this demand for change in gun legislation.
((NATS))
How in the world do you eat deer when it's full of AK47?
Nobody shoots a deer with an AK47.
Well then why do they have them?
AR15s
Ok, you're right. Why do they have them?
Home defense.
Oh! You can do home defense with a .38.
((DENVER RIGGLEMAN, REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE, 5TH DISTRICT, VIRGINIA))
If we're talking about the seizure of firearms or the mass seizure of firearms, it's unnecessary, it's unconstitutional.
((Locator: Washington, DC - March 24, 2018))
((NATS))
((DELANEY TARR, MARCH FOR OUR LIVES))
We are here to call out every single politician, to force them into enacting this legislation, to addressing this legislation, to doing more than a simple Band-Aid on a broken bone.
((LEONARD STEINHORN, PROFESSOR OF COMMUNICATION, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY))
These Parkland students didn't ask to get involved. They were forced to get involved because of a life and death matter that they saw on the grounds of their school affecting their friends, their families, their community and ultimately our country.
((NATS))
((DELANEY TARR, MARCH FOR OUR LIVES))
If we move on, the NRA and those against us will win.
((AUDREY REGNERY, RESIDENT, RAPPAHANNOCK COUNTY, VIRGINIA))
Some of the political groups, and I'm not going to say who they are,
feed on this kind of thing. They feed on fear. And these children are right into that situation. For these kids going out, a lot of them don't know what they're there for.
((STEPHEN HALBROOK, CONSTITUTIONAL ATTORNEY))
There was a reaction that law abiding people throughout the country, who are gun owners, felt like this is some kind of orchestrated attack that special interests have set forth and carried through. Everybody's interest is not to have school shootings happen, and the only question is, how do you prevent them?
((NATS))
That's what I'm getting at.
((LEONARD STEINHORN, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY))
So you have two opposing worldviews here. People who look at guns as safety, security, freedom. Other people who look at guns as palpable threats and something that makes them afraid, and something that could potentially threaten their lives. How you reconcile those worldviews, that's very difficult. We have to find a way to listen to each other and come together.
((NATS))
