By: Teresa Mull

Arik Housley lost his 18-year-old daughter, Alaina, during the California shooting at a country bar in Thousand Oaks last week. Housley told CBS News more gun control laws won’t stop the senseless killings.

Housley said:

“To us, [the message] is to be kind to one another. It’s to put down your technology, put down your phones and look at somebody and have a conversation. It’s not about gun control; this message is about doing something bigger, to be with your community, to love one another.”

Correspondent Lee Cowan interjected, “All things that you don’t have to legislate?” to which Housley said, “Right. Exactly.

“What if somebody walked up to the guy and just asked him how he was doing that day and said ‘hello’ to him or did something that may have just changed his mind, instead of ignoring, or whatever we’re doing?” Housley said.

Alaina’s uncle, Adam Housley, is a former Fox New correspondent. He said in the CBS interview he received hate-fueled Tweets in the wake of his niece’s death, including one that 78 people “liked” which said he “deserved it” because he worked for Fox.

“To get to the point where we can have a conversation about anything political, it has to start here [points to heart],” Adam Housley said. “It has to start with the soul, because we’ve lost that.”

Teresa Mull is editor of Gunpowder Magazine. Contact her at [email protected].