ROANOKE, Va. — Colleagues of the journalists slain a day earlier had a grief-filled return to work here on Thursday, clinging to one another for support and unsure if it was safe to venture out, while Democratic politicians and one victim’s father said the shooting showed the need for tougher gun laws.

“I have watched anchors and reporters half an hour before a newscast be crying in the newsroom and then get on that set and deliver the news,” said Kelly Zuber, news director of WDBJ television, on Thursday, a day after two of its journalists were gunned down. Alison Parker, a reporter, and Adam Ward, a cameraman, were shot Wednesday by a former reporter at the station, Vester Lee Flanagan II, who later took his own life.

“Our meteorologist this morning found a candy wrapper, while on the air, that Adam Ward had always eaten and had left somewhere, and it’s those kinds of little things that are getting to us now,” Ms. Zuber said at a news conference, flanked by dozens of station employees, many of them holding hands. “My sports director just said to me, ‘I lost it when I walked out and saw his car in the parking lot, and had clothes in it.’”

She said that “just as an abundance of caution,” the station did not send news teams into the field for live reports after the shooting on Wednesday, or on Thursday. “Law enforcement has actually reached out to us and said hey, if you’re doing a live shot, let us know, we’ll be there and we’ll help you,” Ms. Zuber said.