Father pleads for ‘normal life’
All died much too young but it’s important that we do not let the arithmetic of this atrocity define them.’’ Janet Napolitano
Santa Barbara, California – Thousands gathered at the University of California, Santa Barbara, yesterday to mourn six students killed in a weekend rampage as California lawmakers proposed new ways of keeping guns out of the hands of disturbed killers.
‘‘All died much too young but it’s important that we do not let the arithmetic of this atrocity define them,’’ UC President Janet Napolitano told a packed crowd.
Each of the victims left a mark on the world and ‘‘as long as we hold them in our hearts, they are not gone’’, she said.
The school cancelled classes and declared a day of mourning and reflection yesterday, four days after the shootings and stabbings in the Isla Vista community by 22-year-old community college student Elliot Rodger, who had posted a video online outlining his plan to slaughter as many people as possible.
Richard Martinez, whose son Christopher Michaels-Martinez, 20, died in the attacks, urged students to fight for tougher gun laws.
Rodger had legally obtained three semi-automatic handguns and still had 400 unspent rounds of ammunition when he shot himself to death, authorities said.
‘‘They (politicians) have done nothing and that’s why Chris died . . . in my opinion,’’ Martinez said.
‘‘It’s almost become a normal thing for us to accept this,’’ he said, referring to mass-killings.
‘‘It’s not normal . . . life doesn’t have to be like this.’’
He got the crowd to repeatedly chant ‘‘Not one more,’’ in reference to such massacres.
He also read statements from the families of two other slain students, Cheng Yuan Hong and Weihan Wang, both 20, in which they asked for prayers or blessings on the families of the victims and the killer.
‘‘May we together create a peaceful world and let hatred be gone with the wind,’’ the Hong family statement said.
Two California Assembly members proposed legislation yesterday that would create a gun violence restraining order that could be sought from a judge by law enforcement at the request of family members and friends.
‘‘When someone is in crisis, the people closest to them are often the first to spot the warning signs but almost nothing can now be done to get back their guns or prevent them from buying more,’’ said Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, who sponsored the measure with Das Williams.
Currently, therapists can tell authorities when they fear a client is at risk of committing a violent act. However, there is no prohibition on firearms ownership unless someone has been involuntarily committed for mental health treatment.
The rampage came hours after Rodger emailed a lengthy manifesto to his parents, therapists and others, and a month after sheriff’s deputies had visited him on a welfare check after his parents became concerned about his postings on YouTube.
The deputies found Rodger to be shy but polite.
They left without walking through the apartment or talking to anyone else.
Rodger later wrote in his manifesto that deputies would have found his weapons and foiled his plot if only they had done a bit more checking. Rodger later wrote in his manifesto that deputies would have found his weapons and foiled his plot if only they had done a bit more checking.