NORFOLK, Va. - The shooting outside of graduation in Richmond is the latest incidence of gun violence to bring national attention to Virginia.
It's also once again setting off a familiar debate—what can be done to prevent incidents like this?
"There's no safe space left. There's no place left in America where people feel completely comfortable or don't have some worry about what might happen to them," said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va) on Thursday.
Kaine says the shooting is proof more needs to be done, although he notes Virginia has passed several laws in recent years tightening gun laws.
"All of these things are not solving the problem, but they're demonstrating to us that we can find solutions if we stay with it," he said.
In the Richmond case, police say the shooter was 19 years old and was involved in an ongoing dispute with one of the victims.
Police have not said how he got the gun. Current federal law would make it illegal for someone under 21 to be able to purchase a handgun from a federally licensed dealer, although the law is being challenged.
Kaine says he wants to see more information to be able to see exactly how to respond.
"We're an outlier in the ease with which a young person can get a gun and use it to settle an argument," he said.
The shooting happened outside of a well-known theater that opens into a city park, which is a gun-free zone.
Philip Van Cleave. from the Virginia Citizens Defense League, says that's a sign policies like that don't work.
"It's a matter of the more people that are legally carrying, the more the odds are higher that someone will be in the vicinity of something like that and be able to stop it," he said.
Shortly after the shooting, Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears (R-Virginia) said the shooting showed people aren't being held accountable enough for their actions.
"How many people have to die before we say you're going to jail, we're going to lock you up?" said Sears on Tuesday.
There does seem to be a consensus Virginia needs to do more to address mental health.
At the federal level,Kaine says he is working to improve access to mental healthcare and it's an issue state leaders have also keyed in on.
"Equipping our young people with decision-making skills so that they don't have to settle an argument or a disagreement by violence, but that they can find more productive ways to resolve - that's really important," he said.
