Online petition urges Virginia gun show be cancelled after deadly TV shooting

WATCH ABOVE: During a campaign stop in Iowa on Wednesday, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton spoke about the deadly shooting in Virginia that took the lives of a reporter and cameraman.

TORONTO — An online petition is urging an upcoming gun show in Virginia be cancelled after a deadly shooting of two journalists on live TV.

A gun show is set to take place this weekend in Roanoke, about 40 kilometres from where the shooting occurred Wednesday morning.

The Change.org petition titled Cancel Gun Show At Berglund Center Out of Respect for Shooting Victims appeals to the venue to cancel the show, set for Aug. 29 to Aug. 30, in wake of the “horrific” events.

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WDBJ7 reporter Alison Parker, 24, and photojournalist, Adam Ward, 27, were gunned down by a disgruntled former coworker as Parker conducted an interview on live television. The woman being interviewed was also shot. She was rushed to hospital where she underwent surgery and was reported to be in stable condition.

The suspected shooter later died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“We feel holding a gun show at this time would show an immense disrespect for the victims as well as their family and friends,” the petition page states.

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This isn’t the first time a gun show has faced pressure to be cancelled after a mass shooting in the United States.

After the December 2012 Sandy Hook tragedy in Newton, Connecticut, when a lone gunman took the lives of 20 children and six staff at an elementary school, a number of area gun shows were cancelled out of respect and public pressure. But not the East Coast Fine Arms show; it went on as planned in nearby Stamford.

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“It would be tremendously expensive to me to give up before the show opens after I’ve spent thousands of dollars,” organizer Newman Chittenden told the New York Daily News. “I just cannot afford to do that.”

An event listing for the upcoming show in question, the Roanoke Gun Show, states it will have as many as 500 vendors and that “All federal, state and local firearm ordinances and laws must be obeyed.” It’s being organized by Showmasters Gun Shows of Virginia.

A search for upcoming gun shows in Virginia brings up no shortage of events — no fewer than 28 are scheduled in the state before the end of the year.