His Thoughts — Be strong in the Lord, Virginia

Published 12:30 pm Thursday, December 1, 2022

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We never know when tragedy will touch our communities. One week after the senseless murder of three University of Virginia football players, a long-time manager at a Walmart in Chesapeake killed six of his coworkers and injured numerous others.

Late Tuesday evening of last week, a long-time manager at a Walmart in Chesapeake went into a break room and killed six co-workers, apparently selecting specific people before killing himself.

The killer had no previous criminal record. He purchased the firearm the morning of the shooting.

He purchased the firearm legally.

In a death note found in his phone, the shooter said, “Sorry everyone but I did not plan this I promise things just fell in place like I was led by the Satan.”

He claimed that his phone had been hacked, blamed his coworkers for making fun of him, and his parents for not paying more attention to his “social deficits.”

As with the shooting at UVA, law enforcement and other investigators are working to determine what happened, and if anything could have been done to prevent the killings.

Until we know what happened, it is not only wrong to propose solutions — it’s counterproductive.

Virginia Democrats, however, even before they know what happened, have already proposed their solutions — more bans and more restrictions, even though we don’t know if they have any bearing on the two shootings at all.

Democrats had complete control of state government for two years and passed a raft of gun control measures when they did. What new restrictions do we need now that Democrats themselves didn’t enact when they were in charge?

I hope our country and our Commonwealth can find peace from recent tragedies, and I pray to the Lord to continue to watch over us as we live in a time when people want to commit the most heinous acts of violence. I will continue to pray for our nation, as we are the greatest nation on Earth, and we should all be thankful for the opportunity to call America home.

Del. Tommy Wright can be reached via email at DelTWright@House.Virginia.gov or (804) 698-1061.