National Rifle Association advocates resist calls for gun reform in the wake of the shooting of two TV journalists in Virginia, US.

A prominent National Rifle Association advocate has released a 10-minute video message in which he suggests the parents of the reporters killed on air in Virginia last week not be "emotional" in calling for gun control.

The statement was made by Colion​ Noir, who fronts an NRA web video program designed to appeal to young people.

"To the parents of Alison Parker and Adam Ward, I have no right to tell any parent how to grieve for their child," Noir says in the video.



"Grief-inspired advocacy can be extremely effective and powerful and I say run full speed to find the way to end violence like this.



"However, sometimes in a fight we can become so emotional that everyone and everything starts looking like the enemy even when they are there to help us. I am deeply sorry for your loss."







Alison Parker and Adam Ward were killed in the attack. Photo: Reuters.



So far this video appears to be the most significant response by the NRA to the murder of the two journalists, shot dead live on air by a disgruntled former colleague, who also shot and wounded their interview subject.



On Sunday, Parker's parents appeared on CNN and vowed to fight for increased gun control in her memory.



"Alison would be really mad at me if I didn't take this on," her father Andy Parker said. "And I promise you, these people are messing with the wrong family. We are going to effect a change."



Parker's mother, Barbara, said she was not discouraged that other prominent shootings had not yet prompted change, or that those who opposed new gun control measures were so well funded and organised.



"There are people out there whose minds we will never change," she said. "If you are a parent, if you are a mother, if you have children – how can you look your child in the eye and say 'we are willing to allow you to be collateral damage in order to keep what some people perceive to be their constitutional rights'. If we as a society are willing to accept that, what kind of society are we?"



In a separate interview, Parker said he had already been in contact with other gun control advocates, including Mike Kelly, the astronaut whose wife, congresswoman Gabby Giffords, was shot in the head in a mass shooting, to see how to help push "sensible gun control legislation".



Parker authored an opinion piece published on Sunday reiterating that he plans to make his life's work "trying to implement effective and reasonable safeguards against this happening again".

YouTube Collins Idehen, known as Colion Noir, hosts a show called Noir.

Officially the NRA's response was silence, though it has used its growing in-house media arm to respond to calls for increased gun control made by, among others, US President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party's frontrunner for the next year's presidential election.

Hours after the murders, NRA radio personality Cam Edwards, host of a show called Cam & Company, complained the shootings were already being used to promote an anti-gun agenda.

"It has been really disheartening to see in a matter of minutes how this story became politicised," Edwards said.

"This is a community that is absolutely heartbroken right now and you've got people who are trying to turn this tragedy into some sort of political advantage for them[selves]. I just think it's gross."

He went on to call new gun laws "the wrong response to take here. I think it shows a lack of shared humanity".

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Noir was even more aggressive in the video.

"Let's face it, the gun issue is nothing less than low hanging fruit for Hillary and the rest of the gun control zealots," he says.

"She can stand on top of the gun control issue, beat her chest and make it sound like she is talking about something, when she is not, and it is getting disrespectful that you think American people are that stupid."

In an allusion to the controversy over Clinton's use of a personal email server as secretary of state, he adds: "So do me a favour, take all of those useless gun control laws, type them up in a neat little email and then delete them."

Of the man who killed Parker and Ward, he says, "This man's issue wasn't a gun, the same way a morbidly obese person's isn't a spoon or fork."

The car of suspected gunman Vester Flanagan, also known as Bryce Williams, in Virginia. Photo: Reuters

Noir is not an official spokesman for the NRA, but a paid advocate who hosts a YouTube channel with more than 313,000 subscribers.

A self-described "urban gun enthusiast " in his early 30s, he has become one of the most visible faces for an organisation that is usually associated with, as he puts it, "old fat white guys".

Noir, whose real name is Collins Idehen, is a native of Houston, Texas, and a practising attorney who earned his law degree from Texas Southern University's Thurgood Marshall School of Law.

His show – called Noir – is designed to appeal to minorities and young people, two demographics that do not show great support for the NRA.

The NRA has been contacted for comment.