Parents of VA TV Reporter Killed on Air to Visit CBS SUNDAY MORNING, 3/13

By: Caryn Robbins Mar. 11, 2016

Six months after WDBJ-TV correspondent Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward were gunned down on live television, Parker's parents tell CBS SUNDAY MORNING they're on a mission to change gun laws, in an interview to be broadcast March 13 (9:00 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network.

The interview is part of CBS SUNDAY MORNING's special edition "Guns and America," which looks at the role of firearms in the country from a variety of points of view.

Parker and Ward were killed by a former co-worker as they broadcast live on the morning news in Roanoke, Va. Parker's parents, Barbara and Andy, have turned their grief into motivation to get tougher background checks for gun purchases. The man who shot their daughter, however, had passed a background check and legally bought the gun he used on Aug. 26, 2015.

"We're on a mission. I don't think it's quixotic. And I don't think we're going to fail," Andy Parker tells Moriarty.

"We've seen this become a national conversation," adds Barbara Parker. "Whereas, even a couple of years ago, no one would talk about it. But now people are all discussing it, and telling us, 'What you're doing is important.'"

Moriarty talks with the Parkers about their lives after their daughter and Ward were killed. Moriarty also talks with Chris Hurst, Parker's boyfriend and an anchor at WDBJ-TV, a CBS affiliate.

Hurst wasn't watching the morning news because Parker felt she'd mess up if she knew he was tuned in, he says, adding he lost everything that morning. Now, he watches the Parkers honor their daughter's spirit by fighting for change. That fight, however, comes with risks.

They have become "targets," he tells Moriarty. "But, we don't have any fear. We really feel like she's guiding us and we're just following her lead."

Click here for more with Hurst.

CBS SUNDAY MORNING is broadcast Sundays (9:00-10:30 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network. Rand Morrison is the executive producer.

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Image courtesy of CBS News