The father of one of the victims of Friday night’s shooting spree in Isla Vista, California blames his son’s death on politicians who did nothing to restrict gun ownership after the Newtown shootings.
Richard Martinez lost his son, Christopher Michael-Martinez, when Elliot Rodger shot him and two others dead near the UC-Santa Barbara campus. Rodger had already stabbed three other people to death in his apartment; he killed himself before police could take him into custody.
Martinez says rampages such as Rodger’s would continue until the nation enacts stricter gun laws.
“We’re all proud to be Americans. But what kind of message does it send to the world when we have such a rudderless bunch of idiots in government?” he tells a CNN reporter. “I can’t tell you how angry I am. It’s just awful, and no parent should have to go through this.”
About the lawmakers who refused to consider new gun laws after the December 2012 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, he says:
“These people are getting rich sitting in Congress. And what do they do? They don’t take care of our kids. … Chris died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA. They talk about gun rights. What about Chris’s right to live? When will this insanity stop?”
In April 2013, Senate Republicans, urged on by the NRA, blocked legislation that would have extended background checks for gun sales, banned assault weapons, and limit magazines’ capacities.
Sheriff Bill Brown says police visited Rodger two weeks before the shootings following a tip that Rodger was planning some sort of violence, but Rodger convinced them that he was not a threat to others. The police did not search his apartment; had they searched, they would have found three pistols that Rodger had legally obtained. Rodger wrote in a rambling 140-page manifesto written shortly before his killing spree:
“If they had demanded to search my room … that would have ended everything. For a few horrible seconds, I thought it was all over. When they left, the biggest wave of relief swept over me. It was so scary.
Brown?says:
“It’s easy to look at these situations from a Monday morning quarterback perspective. But there certainly is a problem.”
Brown calls Rodger “severely mentally disturbed,” but experts say his diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome is no indication that he was prone to such violence.
Mark Kelly, the husband of former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was severely wounded in a 2011 shooting in Arizona, says:
“Gabby and I are praying for the victims of last night’s horrific tragedy in Isla Vista. Every time we learn of another senseless shooting like this one, our hearts break and we know that no words will bring peace to the families who lost loved ones.”
edited by tw
