By Dave Workman
Special to Liberty Park Press
Thursday was the 10th anniversary of the infamous Isla Vista rampage in which six young people were murdered by Elliot Rodger, and in that decade, some misunderstandings about the incident have become almost mythical.
In an interview with KEYT News marking the somber anniversary, Richard Martinez, whose only son, Christopher, was one of the victims, stated, “Stronger gun laws work. States that have stronger gun laws, have less gun violence. In 2022, Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. It was the first, gun violence prevention legislation that passed congress in 30 years.”
In actual fact, Rodger’s murderous rampage happened in California, which has some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the nation, even at the time of the killings. According to the well-documented historical account published by Wikipedia, Rodger purchased three handguns starting long before the May 23, 2014 killings. The first gun was purchased in December 2012, a Glock 34 pistol. The following Spring, Rodger bought another handgun, a Sig Sauer P226. His final purchase was in 2014, for another Sig P226.
As noted in a lengthy CNN report, Rodger bought the Sig because it was “a lot more efficient” than the Glock. The CNN story detailed Rodger’s “manifesto” entries, which revealed he had originally considered launching his killing spree on April 26, 2014 but it was postponed because he came down with a cold. So he moved things back a month.
It is important to note that Rodger bought all three handguns at retail, and as a result, went through three separate California background checks and waiting periods.
It is also important that he used only California-compliant 10-round magazines, which tends to refute Mr. Martinez’ arguments about effective gun control laws.
The rampage began in the apartment Rodger shared with two of his first three victims, Weihan “David” Wangm Chen Yuan “James” Hong and, lastly, their friend George Chen, who stopped to visit.
Rodger killed all three by stabbing and slashing them repeatedly, in separate attacks.
Only then did Rodger head out in an effort to enter the Alpha Phi sorority, but was unable to get inside. As he prepared to drive away, he spotted three women and opened fire, fatally wounding Veronika Weiss and Katherine Cooper, and wounding the third, who survived.
Rodger then drove around firing shots at people and buildings, eventually fatally wounding Christopher Michaels-Martinez.
After several more shootings, including an exchange of gunfire with one sheriff’s deputy and a subsequent shootout with four other deputies, Rodger shot himself in the head and his car crashed to a stop, as detailed by the Wikipedia account.
He only used one of the three handguns, a P226, during the 8-minute shooting spree.
Rather than providing evidence for stronger gun control laws, the Isla Vista rampage suggests that California’s already-tough gun laws failed to prevent the tragedy, and had literally nothing to do with his first three killings. As reported by American Handgunner, knives are used in more slayings than rifles or shotguns.
Gun control advocates often overlook these facts.
Workman is editor-in-chief at TheGunMag.com and a nationaly-recognized firearms journalist.
