Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Shooting victim’s father to Congress: Give me gun control, not sympathy
bangordailynews.com ^ | 5/27/2014 | Kimberly Kindy

Posted on 05/28/2014 9:20:24 AM PDT by rktman

Richard Martinez grew up around guns, shooting birds out of the fruit trees on his family’s farm. He later served as a military police officer in the U.S. Army before going on to become a criminal defense lawyer, at times representing the young and the violent.

Now, Martinez is a grieving father.

He’s asking members of Congress to stop calling him to offer condolences but nothing more for the death of his only child, Christopher Michaels-Martinez, who was killed in the rampage Friday in Santa Barbara, California.

“I don’t care about your sympathy. I don’t give a s— that you feel sorry for me,” Richard Martinez said during an extensive interview, his face flushed as tears rolled down his face. “Get to work and do something. I’ll tell the president the same thing if he calls me. Getting a call from a politician doesn’t impress me.”

Saying “we are all to blame” for the death of his 20-year-old son, Martinez urged the public to join him in demanding “immediate action” from members of Congress and President Barack Obama to curb gun violence by passing stricter gun-control laws.

(Excerpt) Read more at bangordailynews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2a; banglist; elliotrodger; guncontrol
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 last
To: holymoly

Understood.

Apparently there is a lot of this going around now ;/


61 posted on 05/28/2014 10:42:29 AM PDT by chris37 (heartless)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: rktman

62 posted on 05/28/2014 10:46:21 AM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rktman

After the news conference, Martinez told reporters to train their cameras on him as he delivered a biting, 80-second speech attacking “craven” politicians and the National Rifle Association.

While Martinez said he is angered by the public’s willingness to accept mass murder as a way of life in America, he said he is not mad at Rodger’s parents.

Martinez said he hopes to meet with Rodger’s father, Peter Rodger, a Hollywood director and photographer, and enlist him in his fight to change gun laws. Peter Rodger and his attorney did not respond to a request for interviews.

“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,” Martinez said. “He’s a father. I’m a father. He loved his son. I love my son. His son died. My son died.”

Martinez also said he is not angry with either the mental-health system or the sheriff’s deputies, who in April visited Elliot Rodger’s apartment after his family notified them, concerned about dark, brooding videos he had posted on YouTube.

Martinez reserved his anger for the NRA, saying he has no understanding for the group’s position on automatic and semiautomatic weapons after a series of mass murders involving such weapons.

“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,” he said. “I am angered by how they have worked to normalize this.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/father-of-victim-in-santa-barbara-shootings-to-politicians-i-dont-care-about-your-sympathy/2014/05/27/8a030d10-e5ad-11e3-a86b-362fd5443d19_story.html


63 posted on 05/28/2014 10:52:21 AM PDT by kcvl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: silverleaf
give Martinez a pass, he is out of his mind right now with grief and looking to make sense out of the senseless

Sorry, but no pass. He did not choose to have his son killed by a psychotic Hollyweird liberal, but he has voluntarily signed up to be a tool of the gun control nuts. Never let a crisis go to waste.

64 posted on 05/28/2014 10:56:54 AM PDT by Bubba_Leroy (The Obamanation Continues)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: VeniVidiVici
Martinez said he hopes to meet with Rodger’s father, Peter Rodger, a Hollywood director and photographer, and enlist him in his fight to change gun laws.
65 posted on 05/28/2014 10:58:03 AM PDT by kcvl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: chris37

His boy was one of the victims.


66 posted on 05/28/2014 10:58:48 AM PDT by Mathews (Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV), Luke 22:36 (NIV))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: kcvl

If any of his three stabbing victims had been armed with a gun it might have stopped there.

Passing gun control laws to require that victims be unarmed does nothing but give psychotics and criminals the peace of mind of knowing that their victims cannot shoot back.


67 posted on 05/28/2014 11:00:20 AM PDT by Bubba_Leroy (The Obamanation Continues)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: chris37

It would appear DaddyButtShot was a ‘straw buyer’ for the knives and BMW.


68 posted on 05/28/2014 11:06:24 AM PDT by TurboZamboni (Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.-JFK)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: rktman

All of the MSM headlines refer to Shootings and also 7 killed.

Well, while there are 7 dead, one of them, the killer, killed himself. Even more interesting, 3 of the 6 people murdered were stabbed to death. So, where is the demand to outlaw knife possession? Lastly, this murderer attempted to kill several more people by using his BMW. Fortunately, he failed but did manage to injure several more people. Where is the demand to outlaw BMW possession?

If my memory serves me, several years ago a person drove down a busy pedestrian lined street one evening attempting to kill and maim as many people as he could. As I recall, he was partially successful. If I am correct, did that not take place in Isla Vista as well???


69 posted on 05/28/2014 11:09:26 AM PDT by CdMGuy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: silverleaf
"give Martinez a pass, he is out of his mind right now with grief and looking to make sense out of the senseless"

No, an attorney is intentionally posturing in advancing a deplorable cause and raising $$$$ to quash a natural right.
70 posted on 05/28/2014 11:21:16 AM PDT by rollo tomasi (Working hard to pay for deadbeats and corrupt politicians.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: rollo tomasi; All

bury your only child and see how rationally you speak and act in the first day and week

for some of us the massive grief infuses and lifts us with a great energy to DO something, anything, whether it is the right thing or not, whether it is a rational thing or not

sadly I believe you have to have experience losing your only child (not a parent or sibling, but your only child) to understand

the people to be condemned here are the politicians and celebrities who are using this man and exacerbating his irrationality and ultimately his grieving process) for their own gain - including the family of the psycho killer trying to make common cause with the true victims of their son’s evil


71 posted on 05/28/2014 11:27:54 AM PDT by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: rktman

How about I’m sorry your kid was a homicidal maniac but I’m still not giving up my guns.


72 posted on 05/28/2014 11:35:20 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Georgia Girl 2

Sorry your kid was killed by a homicidal maniac but I’m still not giving up my guns.


73 posted on 05/28/2014 11:36:39 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: Georgia Girl 2

Again, wrong guy. The guy who spoke was the dad of one of the victims. Just happens to be..........a criminal-defense attorney. Now, if his kid hadn’t been involved and the perp hadn’t popped himself, this asshat would have been lining up to defend him. In any case, he doesn’t get to make the call. Even though CA has the (our view) gun laws around, it wouldn’t have stopped this clown who knifed his 3 room mates to death even before the shooting started.


74 posted on 05/28/2014 11:50:53 AM PDT by rktman (Ethnicity: Nascarian. Race: Daytonafivehundrian)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: silverleaf
1)I would not be looking for the media 2)I would not be blaming the blameless 3)I would not be going after individuals natural rights

You do realize decades of these "horror stories" have led to disastrous policies. I suggest you wake-up to what a lawyer is trying to do and drop your psycho-babbling conjecture.
75 posted on 05/28/2014 12:00:27 PM PDT by rollo tomasi (Working hard to pay for deadbeats and corrupt politicians.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: Mathews

Yes, I know, some folks have told me, and I do appreciate the heads up.

However he gets no sympathy from me.

Anyone who uses such tragedies to attack the civil rights of those who were not involved are enemies of freedom, and serious enemies at that.


76 posted on 05/28/2014 12:13:44 PM PDT by chris37 (heartless)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: chris37
I would appreciate it if this man and his demon spawn son would stop attacking our civil rights.

Just wow.
Do you comprehend anything before posting? This post dishonors everyone here.

77 posted on 05/28/2014 12:37:57 PM PDT by Last Dakotan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Last Dakotan

Talking about the killer’s father.

A simple mistake.

But I do not have any respect for this particular father either, since he is attacking my civil rights after I have done him no harm at all.


78 posted on 05/28/2014 12:43:21 PM PDT by chris37 (heartless)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies]

To: rktman

“Just happens to be..........a criminal-defense attorney.”

I wonder how many people this guy has defended that were pleas bargained down, reduced sentences, etc. that then went out and killed, harmed, or robbed someone? If so, there should be a ban on defense lawyers.

Makes as much sense as banning guns, or banning women by putting them into concentration camps.


79 posted on 05/28/2014 12:46:59 PM PDT by 21twelve (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts 2013 is 1933 REBORN)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: CGASMIA68

It seems it’s true. NRA could not be involved. The dad is all over the map on this one
http://mashable.com/2014/05/24/santa-barbara-manifesto/


80 posted on 05/28/2014 1:49:49 PM PDT by realcleanguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson