Out of Tragedy, Two Fathers Come Together

On Friday, May 24th, 22 year old Elliot Rodger went on a killing spree in Santa Barbara that injured 13 people and took the lives of 7 more, including his own by suicide. The aftermath of this tragic event added more fuel to the fire of a fierce, decades-long debate about mental illness and gun control that has once again been pushed to the forefront of the American consciousness.

From Columbine, to Sandy Hook and now to Santa Barbara, these horrific events continue to occur, yet because our nation is so polarized on the issues, that the effort from our political and business leaders to actually solve them is virtually non-existent. As a result, it seems as though no meaningful laws or regulations have been able to get passed.

But there's a sliver of hope. A few weeks after the event, Peter Rodger and Richard Martinez, the fathers of Elliot Rodger and one of his 20 year old victims, respectively, met with each other.

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Martinez gained notoriety due to his emotional outcry condemning gun violence, the inaction of our government and his desire to meet with Rodger:

"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."

While we don't know what conversation took place between these two fathers who seemingly formed a bond out of terrible circumstances, we can only hope that the end result will inspire our nation to finally enact change within our broken system that have so many fall through the cracks.