Students mourn near scene of rampage

Associated Press

GOLETA, Calif.

Thousands gathered at the University of California, Santa Barbara, on Tuesday to mourn six students killed in a weekend rampage.

“All died much too young, but it’s important that we do not let the arithmetic of this atrocity define them,” UC President Janet Napolitano told a packed crowd.

Each of the victims left a mark on the world and “as long as we hold them in our hearts, they are not gone,” she said.

The school canceled classes and declared a day of mourning and reflection Tuesday, four days after the shootings and stabbings in the Isla Vista community by 22-year-old community college student Elliot Rodger, who had posted an Internet video outlining his plan to slaughter as many people as possible.

Richard Martinez, whose son, Christopher Michaels-Martinez, 20, died in Friday’s attacks, urged students to fight for tougher gun laws.

Rodger had legally obtained three semiautomatic handguns and still had 400 unspent rounds of ammunition when he shot himself to death, authorities said.

“They [politicians] have done nothing, and that’s why Chris died ... in my opinion,” Martinez said.