On Friday of last week, Elliot Rodger killed Christopher Michaels-Martinez and five others. Since then, politicians far and wide have been calling Christopher’s father, Michael Martinez, with expressions of condolence as often happens when a mass shooting takes place. Apparently fed up with the theater of it all, Mr. Martinez expressed his frustration today in no uncertain terms.
Martinez was also amazingly sympathetic to Elliot Rodger’s parents.
“As bad as I feel about this, at least people come up to me and say, ‘I’m so sorry for you.’ Who will say that to them? No one is going to say that.”
“I’ve been told that the shooter’s father has said he wanted to devote his life to making sure that doesn’t happen again. I share that with him. He’s a father. I’m a father. He loved his son. I love my son. His son died. My son died.”
But mostly, Martinez was upset at the lack of solutions to the problem of mass shootings.
“They don’t have the tools they need. I don’t have the answers, but we should ask them what they need and we should give it to them. It’s a lack of will to find solutions. That’s what I’m upset about. This is a problem that can be solved.”
“I’m angry with the leadership of the NRA who always want to characterize this as if it’s a lone madman. That it’s an act of nature we have to tolerate. I am angered by how they have worked to normalize this.”
A criminal defense attorney, Mr. Martinez and his wife say that it’s their careers that have given them the fortitude to speak out forcefully. Additionally, Martinez is no stranger to guns himself having grown up around them and having been a military police officer in the Army from 1974-1976.
“We are tough people. Caryn (the victim’s mother) was in charge of the sex crime unit. We fight.”
