Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks about rural issues at the Des Moines Area Community College, August 26, 2015, in Ankeny, Iowa. AP Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Wednesday called for action after the stunning on-air, fatal shooting of two television reporters in Virginia.

WDBJ7 reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, were shot and killed on live television during a reporting assignment.

At a press conference in Iowa later on Wednesday, Clinton expressed sympathy but went further than other presidential hopefuls in calling for stricter controls on guns in the US.

"We have got to do something about gun violence in America," she told reporters. "And I will take it on."

"There's so much evidence that if guns were not so readily available, if there were universal background checks ... that maybe we could prevent this kind of carnage," she added.

Clinton had tweeted earlier in the day, hours after the fatal shooting took place:

Other presidential candidates from both parties quickly expressed their condolences on Twitter. Yet Clinton was the first and most forceful to push for action on gun violence.

Here's a map that shows firearm deaths in America:

Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from Kaiser Family Foundation

Democrats have become increasingly willing to speak out about gun violence immediately in the wake of shootings.

After a mass shooting earlier this year at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, Clinton immediately called for stricter gun laws.

"How many innocent people in our country, from little children, to church members, to movie-theater attendees, how many people do we need to see cut down before we act?" Clinton said then.

In an interview with the local radio station WTOP after Wednesday's shooting, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat and close ally of Clinton, also suggested a need for new gun-control measures.

"There are too many guns in the hands of people that shouldn't have guns," McAuliffe said. "There is too much gun violence in America."

The suspected shooter was reportedly a disgruntled former employee at WDBJ7 who subsequently killed himself.

Watch Clinton's full answer below, via C-SPAN: