Never let a crisis go to waste. Don’t wait for the facts, there’s political opportunity in here somewhere; and, well, if they get it wrong – the media will be quick to provide cover for the insufferable flawed logic.

Heartbroken and angry. We must act to stop gun violence, and we cannot wait any longer. Praying for the victims' families in Virginia. -H

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 26, 2015

“First of all, I was so just stricken to think that these two young people doing the work that you guys do every single day would be murdered on live television, and I will extend my condolences and sympathies to their families and to their co-workers and pray for the woman, who last I checked, was still in critical condition”.

“But I will also reiterate we have got to do something about gun violence in America, and I will take it on. There are many people who face it and know it, but then turn away because it’s hard. It’s a very political, difficult issue in America, but I believe we are smart enough, we are compassionate enough to figure out how to balance the legitimate Second Amendment rights with preventive measures and control measures so that whatever motivated this murderer, who eventually took his own life, we will not see more deaths — needless, senseless deaths. So, yes, I feel just great heartache at what happened and I want to reiterate how important it is we not let yet another terrible instance go by without trying to do something more to prevent this incredible killing that is stalking our country.”

Specifically, Clinton spoke of instituting “universal background checks,” saying:

“if we could just put some time-out between the person who is upset because he got fired or the domestic abuse or whatever other motivation may be working on someone who does this, that maybe we could prevent this kind of carnage.”