NEW YORK -- Everytown For Gun Safety wants the shooting of three people during a live television broadcast Wednesday to be an "Eric Garner" moment.
After a shooter killed two journalists from the Virginia-based WDBJ7 during a live broadcast Wednesday morning, footage of the attack spread online. Many outlets and websites decided not to repost the video, but the Michael Bloomberg-backed gun control group has shared it on its Facebook page in hopes of galvanizing lawmakers to take action against gun violence.
Erika Soto Lamb, a spokesman for the nonprofit, told The Huffington Post that the group wants the video to spark outrage similar to that prompted by footage of the death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died last year when police put him in a chokehold.
"We've previously lamented not having our own 'Eric Garner video' that really shows Americans how gun violence is affecting all of us," Lamb said. "This unfortunate tragedy provides us that opportunity to widen the conversation and call for action."
The organization shared the video, with a three-second warning, despite pleas from colleagues of the slain journalists not to.
"We mean no disrespect to them," Lamb said. "Our aims are that no other Americans know this experience firsthand. Our decision to do this was not made lightly."
Still, Everytown refused to share videos posted on Twitter and Facebook by the shooter, depicting the moments before he opened fire on reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward. Vicki Gardner, the executive director of the local Chamber of Commerce who Parker was interviewing at the time, was also shot and is in stable condition.
"Not for a second did we consider sharing those," Lamb said of the shooter's video. "We take a lot of care not to use shooters' names, and no content by the shooter would we ever consider using."