The father of a victim in a deadly rampage near the University of California, Santa Barbara, is blaming “craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA” for his son’s death.
“Why did Chris die? Chris died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA. They talk about gun rights. What about Chris’s right to live?” Richard Martinez asked reporters on Saturday.
{mosads}Richard Martinez said his son, Christopher, was “a really great kid,” adding that his death “has left our family lost and broken.”
Christopher Martinez was one of six people who were killed by Elliot Rodger, 22, on Friday evening in the town of Isla Vista, officials said. Thirteen other people were injured before Rodger took his own life.
Rodger apparently announced his intent to commit mass murder at a sorority house at UCSB and railed against women in a video posted on YouTube.
“When will this insanity stop?” Richard Martinez asked. “When will enough people say, stop this madness, we don’t have to live like this? Too many have died. We should say to ourselves — not one more.”
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told CNN on Sunday morning that Rodger purchased the weapons from licensed firearms dealers in Goleta, Oxnard and Burbank over the course of the year.
Deputies who interacted three times with Rodger didn’t feel he was a danger to himself of other people, Brown said, adding that Rodger was timid and quiet shy in those interactions, which included a “welfare check” requested by the county’s mental health department.
The sheriff also called violent video games, which were referenced in Rodger’s YouTube video, a “plague on our society.”