'In the US, we've no interest in anyone else's opinion'

An ex-TV journalist who shot dead two ex-colleagues live on air in Virginia had been ordered to seek medical help by his bosses, memos reveal. Internal memos from Dan Dennison, then news chief of WDBJ7, show concerns about Vester Flanagan's "aggressive" behaviour towards colleagues. They indicate the station tried to help him before firing him in February 2013. Flanagan shot dead Alison Parker and Adam Ward on Wednesday. He filmed the attack and posted it on social media. ABC News also said it had received a rambling fax from the 41-year-old describing himself as a "human powder keg". The shooting, one of thousands in the US every year, has focused attention once again on gun ownership legislation in America with the White House saying the attack showed the need for better gun control. President Barack Obama pointed out that many more US citizens are killed in shootings than in terrorist attacks. On The Last Word, Niall O’Dowd, the founder of Irishcentral.com in the US said the country had seen too many of these incidents in recent times – caused by deeply disturbed human beings who are aware that they will get a huge amount of publicity by airing their grievances in this way. At the minute, there’s no reason why such individuals would be prohibited from buying a firearm, he said. There needs to be an effective process in place whereby a simple background check would determine if the buyer was a suitable candidate and responsible enough to be sold a gun. However, Richard Feldman, the president of the Independent Firearm Owners Association, said gun control wouldn’t have stopped the Virginia shooting;the focus needed to be on the nation's mental health. Once again the Pavlovian reaction by many politicians and their media cohorts is to focus on more “gun control”, he says. Feldman says he supports useful gun control legislation calculated to keep guns out of the hands of violent criminals, unsupervised juveniles and dangerously confused, mentally ill individuals. "However, I vigorously oppose feel good, do something proposals that are irrelevant to the problems we face".