Uvalde Texas Fake Shooting: Sandy Hook’s most favorite crisis actor Robbie Parker back for an encore

Video Transcript:

These tragedies, these communities picking up the pieces, these news reports. Time and again the narrative is the same but what changes are the devastated families. And I want to bring in someone who experienced this terrible reality nearly 10 years ago. Erica Lafferty is the daughter of Don Hoshbro, the principal Sandy Hook elementary who was murdered and Robbie Parker whose daughter was also murdered in Sandy Hook. We thank you both so much for being here. I want to start off by asking what the rollercoaster of emotions you've experienced has liked since yesterday. Erica has started with you. It was eerily similar how I found out. I got a breaking news alert on my computer when I was working and I was sitting on my couch just as I was the Friday morning and December back in 2012. And the flood of terror and emotion just came as you said it was a rollercoaster. Just all came flooding right back in and brought me right back to those horrible hours spent in the Sandy Hook Firehouse. And my heart was just leading for the families in Texas knowing what they were coming up to. Robbie, same question to you. Yeah for me it was different this time for me. I was at my daughter's school, my middle daughter's school. I was getting ready to pick her up and I started getting text messages from people that were hearing the news before I had heard it. And just really depressed thinking feeling in my chest and that was followed with just a lot of rage and a lot of anger and just a deep sadness because I know that there's other families now that are experiencing the same thing that Erica's family and my family experienced. And there's this is the pain you can't describe and to know that other people are feeling that it's hard to swallow. Erica often people will say it's too soon to debate how we can tackle this problem. You tweeted talking about life-saving measures from the PSA is not solidifying. It's never ever too soon. It is absolutely too exosuitive late. Almost a full decade after burying your mom and people are still saying it's too soon. However Sandy Hook families have made some strides when it comes to tackling gun manufacturers. But do these incidents make you feel like once up for them and five steps back? 100% yes. We have made huge strides in the state. There have been background text bills and extreme risk protection in order. It builds like that past. But nothing nothing nothing has been done on the federal level. I was listening in earlier and you know as as it was better earlier we are literally being held hostage by a Congress by a federal government that refuses to act and refuses to do anything that will make any kind of real change. Guns don't abide by state lines. And that's something that people really need to take a real hard look at. But to say that nothing was done really seems unfair to the people who have been in this fight for so long. But there is so much more to be done and unfortunately the club that we've joined just grows by the masses every single day. And Robbie the NRA is today certainly is not the same NRA that you've battled after your terrible loss. But why do they still feel so relevant when it comes to these issues? Yeah I can't really speak to the fight that Eric has been fighting and fighting against the NRA. After Sandy Hook that that wasn't something that I felt like I wanted to participate in. I say really quiet I try to protect my two younger daughters and I focused on what it was that my family needed at this time. And I felt like what my family needed at the time was their dad. And we needed to focus on our Greece and our healing. And now that I have some years behind me and I have some perspectives and I'm thinking about the families there in Texas and what they're going through. This isn't a fight that they need to be fighting. And Eric and I we have that perspective and we have the energy now. We've worked on our Greece and we can take the fight to them and we can do what it is that we need to do. I think so many times feel deflect because this is really tragic and it's really hard to swallow. And they ask their own questions. They want to waste time asking why does this happen or why does that happen? When really the question that we need to be asking is what can I do? What is it that I can do? To make sure that these things don't happen anymore. And Robby you just said that you have already kind of worked through your grades to some extent although I'm sure it never quite goes all the way away. For those families those parents who it's still so fresh 24 hours old at this point. What would you say to them? I say that their focus needs to be on their healing. This is something that every you hear from everybody and they say I can't imagine what it is that these families are going through. But I can't imagine what it is they're going through and I can't speak specifically for them. But what I can say is that this is time that's very important. They need to be surrounded by people who genuinely love them, who have a support system and who are going to be able to buoyant them up. As many soft repairs and condolences might be going towards them they don't need to hear from us. They need to be supported by their system and their community and their families and they need this time for their healing. And that doesn't mean that these conversations need to have some more torium. We can be having those conversations and we can be doing the things that are appropriate to make sure that more families don't have to join us. Eric Alafry, Robby Parker, thank you so much for your time. Hi everyone, George Stephanopoulos here. Thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel. 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