Related: Complete Coverage of WDBJ Shooting
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said her heart ached over the murder of two TV station journalists "just doing their job" and, like a number of others, used the shootings of a WDBJ TV Roanoke reporter and videographer to pivot toward calls for action on gun control.
She promised she would tackle the issue of gun violence and said that after a series of shooting incidents over the past couple of years, what she called "incredible killing" stalking the country, said perhaps Wednesday's shootings would finally spur action on universal background checks and other steps to make guns not so readily available.
Earlier in the day, Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, who is the former chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, also used the shootings to call for gun control.
The President had not released a statement at press time, but White House press secretary Josh Earnest sounded a similar note in the daily press conference.
While he said he had not talked to the President, he did call it another instance of gun violence becoming all too common, and called for Congress to take tangible steps to reduce gun violence, steps he said would not infringe on the rights of law-abiding Americans.
The President has said that the failure to enact stricter gun control "safety" laws has been one of the major frustrations of his administration.
