There have been but three occasions in my life where I have felt true pain, helplessness, and grief, and those were the three situations involving two of my children’s near-death experiences. I cannot imagine the fathomless depths of pain and heartbreak a parent must endure at the senseless and sudden loss of a child, especially at the hands of a madman. It is for that reason alone that I will not judge the grieving father of Isla Vista shooting victim Christopher Michaels-Martinez, Richard Martinez.

As Deanna wrote about yesterday here, 11 people were injured and six were killed, to include Christopher Michaels-Martinez. In an interview with the media yesterday morning, Mr. Martinez lamented gun culture and placed the deaths of his son and the shooter’s other victims squarely on the shoulders of the NRA and “craven, weak politicians”.

I am truly heartbroken that his child was taken from him by a sociopath. There are no words to relieve or diminish that level of pain. Had anyone in the café in which his son was brutally murdered been armed, perhaps the ending would have been different. But what about the parents of the three roommates the lunatic killed first by stabbing them to death? Should they place the blame on Gerber? SOG? Wusthöf? Henckels? Logic states that no, they should not.

There is a reason I will not address the murderous madman by his name: he doesn’t deserve to be remembered. His victims, however, do, and their memories deserve to be done justice. They don’t deserve the gun-grabbing Bernie Sanders-like attitude that “people die every day”, nor do they deserve to have the hideous actions of the animal who took their lives exonerated by placing the blame for his actions elsewhere, especially those who would have ensured his son could have defended himself.

I will not profess to know or understand what Mr. Martinez is going through because I do not. I do believe that the family of his son’s killer failed both him and society if they knew him to be mentally unbalanced, and I believe that he is failing the memory of his son if he doesn’t hold accountable not the NRA or pro-gun politicians, but the only person truly responsible for taking his son from him. If he truly doesn’t want another parent to feel his pain, he should advocate that every son and daughter of a mother and father is able to defend themselves against the Isla Vista shooters/stabbers of the world. I know I will.