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World & Nation

Isla Vista shooting renews frustration among gun control advocates

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People look through a window pocked with bullet holes at the IV Deli Mart in Isla Vista, near UC Santa Barbara.   (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Seen through a bullet hole, IV Deli Mart owner Michael Hassan cleans up his store near UC Santa Barbara. A gunman fatally shot someone there.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Students listen to a memorial service at UCSB for six students slain Friday in Isla Vista.   (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Students hug during a memorial service at UCSB for six students slain Friday in Isla Vista.   (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Students listen to a memorial service at UCSB for six students slain Friday in Isla Vista.   (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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UC Santa Barbara student Shoshana Cohen, 20, writes a chalk message in the street in front of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista, where one of last week’s rampage victims was gunned down.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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A passersby is reflected in the window of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista, where one of the victims in last week’s rampage was gunned down.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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UCSB student Jessica Enriquez stands quietly at a memorial for those killed by Elliot Rodger’s rampage at the Associated Students Pardall Center in Isla Vista.   (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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UCSB student Danielle Burbank, right, pets Mason, a yellow Labrador taking part in dog therapy in Isla Vista.   (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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UCSB student Forrest Liu, 20, writes out his thoughts at a memorial for those killed at the Associated Students Pardall Center.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Students gather near Royce Hall at UCLA to pay tribute to the Isla Vista victims during a candlelight vigil Monday.   (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Students observe a moment of silence near Royce Hall at UCLA during a tribute to the Isla Vista victims.   (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Pastor Michael Faccuito of Santa Barbara prays in front of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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People stand with signs reading “News Crew Go Home” in front of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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UC Santa Barbara student Ariana Richmond, 20, writes on the sidewalk in front of the apartment where Elliot Rodger lived and allegedly stabbed three victims to death in Isla Vista, Calif.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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UCSB student Hanna Korynta, 20, in front of the apartment where Elliot Rodger lived and allegedly stabbed three men to death in Isla Vista, Calif., on Friday. She has come to bring flowers and pay her respects. Korynta and her boyfriend heard gunfire after returning from dinner the night of the stabbings and shootings but they were not injured.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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Friends and mourners have placed flowers and notes outside the apartment where Elliot Rodger lived and allegedly stabbed three victims to death in Isla Vista, Calif. The note is presumably written for George Chen, 19, a victim of the stabbings who attended nearby UC Santa Barbara.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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Flowers have been placed outside the apartment where Elliot Rodger lived and allegedly stabbed three victims to death in Isla Vista, Calif., near UC Santa Barbara.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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A candlelight vigil was held on Pardall Road near the scene of one of the fatal shootings in Isla Vista on Friday night.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
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A congregant reacts during Mass at St. Mark’s University Parish in honor of the UC Santa Barbara victims.   (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
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Congregants embrace during Mass at St. Mark’s University Parish in Isla Vista to remember the victims of Friday night’s violent rampage that left seven dead.   (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
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Well-wishers arriving to pay respects at the home of UC Santa Barbara student Katherine Cooper, who was killed in the Isla Vista attack, hug outside her family’s home in Chino Hills.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
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Friends hold hands to pray and remember shooting victims Veronika Weiss of Thousand Oaks and Katie Cooper of Chino Hills outside the Alpha Phi sorority house where they were gunned down Friday during a rampage in Isla Vista.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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UCSB student Natasha Monsauret brings two red roses to place at the memorial in front of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista.   (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Friends hold hands to pray and remember shooting victims Veronika Weiss of Thousand Oaks and Katie Cooper of Chino Hills outside the Alpha Phi sorority house.   (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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A large crowd gathers to pray and remember shooting victims Veronika Weiss and Katie Cooper outside the Alpha Phi sorority house in Isla Vista.   (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Jose Cardoso, 50, cries and prays next to flowers in front of the Alpha Phi sorority house, which was targeted in the rampage. He said he has a local printing shop and has done a lot of work for the fraternities and sororities. He said he thinks of the students as his own children.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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A woman adds flowers to a memorial in front of the Alpha Phi sorority house in Isla Vista.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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Knitted peace symbols hang from a tree across the street from of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista, a scene of part of the violent rampage Friday night.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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A young man places flowers in front of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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Robert McHalffey, 29, reacts after placing flowers in front of the I.V. Deli Mart.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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Flowers placed at the I.V. Deli in Isla Vista on May 25, 2014, form a part of a makeshift memorial to victims of a shooting rampage.

  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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A passerby pays his respects at a makeshift memorial in front of the IV Deli Mart.  (Chris Carlson / Associated Press)
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Two men kneel at a makeshift memorial in Isla Vista.  (Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images)
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Students gathered on the UC Santa Barbara campus to remember those killed Friday night during a rampage in Isla Vista. Hundreds turned out for the event.   (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
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Hundreds turned out Saturday for a vigil at UC Santa Barbara to remember the victims killed in Friday’s rampage.  (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
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Caitlyn Dixon distributes roses in Isla Vista on May 24, the day after a shooting rampage left six people and the gunman dead.   (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Lyssa Hopper is comforted outside the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista. Hopper was in the store Friday night when the shooting began.  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
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The gunman’s car is cordoned off in Isla Vista, where seven people, including the attacker, were killed. He was found slumped in the BMW, three handguns and more than 400 rounds of ammunition at his side.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Alan Shifman, an attorney representing Elliot Rodger’s family, speaks to reporters outside the family’s Woodland Hills home on May 24.   (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
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Hannah Maschwitz, right, gets a hug from her boyfriend, fellow UC Santa Barbara senior Tyler Mullen, as the two reunite the morning after the shootings.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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A memorial outside the IV Deli Mart in Isla Vista where one man was killed in the shooting rampage.  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
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An investigator from the California Department of Justice Crime Lab collects evidence on Sabado Tarde Road on May 24 after the shooting rampage in Isla Vista.   (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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A street in Isla Vista where the car driven by the gunman crashed.   (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Santa Barbara County Sheriff investigators check the suspect’s black BMW. In Isla Vista, seven people were killed and seven people wounded in a shooting rampage Friday night in the college town near UC Santa Barbara.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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A black BMW with a shattered windshield is at the scene in Isla Vista.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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A black BMW with a shattered windshield is at the scene in Isla Vista.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Trigo Road near a 7-Eleven where a person was shot Friday night in an Isla Vista, Calif.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Officials investigate a scene near the school campus after the series of shootings.  (Adolfo Flores / Los Angeles Times)
By Paresh Dave
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Mixed in with prayers and sympathy after the Isla Vista shooting and stabbing rampage in Santa Barbara County were renewed calls Saturday to pass stronger gun control legislation.

“Although the circumstances of this attack are under investigation, we do know that real solutions exist to prevent most of the 90 gun deaths that happen in our nation every day, and that those solutions are supported by the overwhelming majority of Americans,” said Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, in a statement Saturday.

The Santa Barbara rampage left six people and the attacker dead. The father of one of the victims blamed politicians and gun rights proponents for the death of his 20-year-old son, Christopher Martinez.

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“Chris died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA. They talk about gun rights. What about Chris’s right to live?” Richard Martinez told reporters Saturday. “When will this insanity stop? 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!’”

Authorities identified the attacker as Elliot Rodger, 22, a community college student. They recovered three semi-automatic handguns that belonged to him. The guns – two Sig Sauer p226 model handguns and a Glock 34 – had been legally purchased from federally licensed dealers and were registered to Rodger, according to Bill Brown of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.

Authorities also recovered 34 loaded 10-round magazines for the Sig Sauers and seven 10-round magazines for the Glock, Brown said at a news conference Saturday evening.

The Brady Campaign group has advocated for expanded background checks, among other changes to gun laws, but Republicans in Congress and statehouses have thwarted such measures.

The Newtown Action Alliance, formed in the wake of the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, sent prayers westward Saturday. The group was hosting a Youth Gun Violence Prevention Summit in Connecticut as news of the Isla Vista rampage spread. Among those on hand to help teenagers and young adults come up with ideas was Colin Goddard, a survivor of the Virginia Tech University shooting massacre in 2007.

At least 72 shootings have occurred on school campuses in the 17 months since the Sandy Hook case, according to the Everytown for Gun Safety coalition. Friday night’s mass shooting occurred in a community adjacent to the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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Former NASA Capt. Mark Kelly, whose wife former Rep. Gabrielle Gifford was shot in the head in a mass shooting during a 2011 constituent event in Tucson, said in a statement that the couple were angered and shocked.

“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,” said Kelly, cofounder of the pro-gun-control Americans for Responsible Solutions.

Earlier this week, Kelly joined Democratic lawmakers in backing legislation that would give $10 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the causes and effects of gun violence. Such research had been impossible until last year, when President Obama signed an executive order scuttling a ban put in place by Congress in 1996.

In introducing the legislation, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said it’s time to treat gun violence “like the public health crisis it is.”

“If we want to prevent injury and deaths from guns, we need to know what can be done to prevent it,” he said in a statement. “No one should be afraid of more non-partisan, scientific research of this issue – not Democrats, not Republicans, and not the NRA.”

A National Rifle Association spokeswoman called Markey’s bill an “unethical” proposal that fosters an “abuse of taxpayer funds for anti-gun political propaganda under the guise of ‘research,’” according to a statement to ProPublica.

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On Saturday, at least one U.S. lawmaker denounced the Santa Barbara violence.

“I join the nation in mourning and praying for the victims & their loved ones -- such senseless act of violence must stop,” Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) said on Twitter.

An attorney for the Rodger family acknowledged the situation and told reporters that his client will make it a mission in life to prevent a similar tragedy.

The family supports gun control laws, said family attorney Alan Shifman said, according to the Associated Press.

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World & Nation
Paresh Dave

Paresh Dave was a Los Angeles-based tech reporter for the Los Angeles Times from May 2013 to September 2017. He focused on business issues surrounding local tech companies, the digital media industry, e-sports and video games and occasionally cybersecurity. Dave previously covered the criminal courts system, national tragedies and sports business. He graduated from the University of Southern California and grew up in San Diego.

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