The Republican sponsor of a bill to put conditions on municipal broadband buildouts in Virginia has recrafted the bill after Governor Terry McAuliffe said he would veto it, according to a group opposing the bill.

The bill — introduced in the Virginia assembly two weeks ago — would allow for municipal buildouts but only if they target unserved areas, which it defines as those where the average broadband speed is less than 10 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up.

It would also require an independent study to identify unserved areas before any buildouts and would put conditions on overbuilding of any existing service at any speed.

A municipality would also have to provide access to rights of way on a first-come, first-serve basis to commercial providers and could not cross-subsidize its broadband with regulated utility money.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which backs municipal broadband buildouts, said the revised bill still does nothing to help connect rural Virginia, adding that while the bill would allow for buildouts, it would also offer a way for "big cable companies" to limit broadband competition in the state.

"The bill still gives an edge to private providers by ensuring municipal actors must share their trade secrets," said the group. "It also opens up local governments to lawsuits for perceived service issues as well as limiting private investment in Internet connectivity. These restrictions functionally ensure that it is impossible for municipal networks to develop and offer competition to the cable monopolies."

Bill backers, including ISPs, have argued that the bill would ensure that the buildouts, and taxpayer dollars, are targeted to where the service is needed, rather than being used to subsidize overbuilds of existing private providers.

Andy Parker, the father of slain WDBJ reporter Allison Parker, called on the media not to let the gun violence issue be put on the back burner after the WDBJ story has faded and said that if he had to be the "John Walsh" of gun control, he would be.

That was a reference to the father of the murdered Adam Walsh, now with CNN, who made his life's work getting kidnapped children returned and cold cases solved.

In an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo, Parker (above, at right) said he wanted to make it harder for people with mental issues, like the WDBJ shooter, to get guns. "There has to be a mechanism," he said, and vowed not to rest until that mechanism is in place.

He called out political cowards in the pockets of gun lobbies who sidestep the issue or kick it down the road and said all he wanted were sensible laws "so that crazy people can't get guns."

Cuomo pointed out that Donald Trump had just talked about the issue and said it was not about access to guns.

Parker said he did not want to take away guns, but that it was not unreasonable to want legislators to take action.

He said hew was appealing to journalists to take up that cause as well. "She was one of you guys. This has to hit home with journalists."

He also said that he had talked with Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe and told him his plan--to become a crusader for a mechanism for keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill--and said the governor had said "you go for it,"

McAuliffe used the incident to call for stricter gun laws.