Elliot Rodger

The bill, authored by state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, strengthens an existing gun law she also authored by allowing police to confiscate firearm components such as ammunition and magazines from dangerous individuals with credible evidence of a threat.

FSU’s story has become sickeningly familiar to us. In the aftermath of campus shootings, the obligatory debate on gun control tends to take precedence over the frank discussion of mental health services and their limitations.

An Assembly bill that would prevent people from temporarily owning or purchasing guns if considered susceptible to committing acts of violence is moving through to the California State Senate floor, in the wake of the Santa Barbara shooting rampage this past May.

The best way to prevent atrocities such as the Santa Barbara massacre is to cure the disease at its source. Rodger was sick, exposed to the compounding societal poisons of celebrity worship, media saturation, misogyny and materialism. He was a wealthy, straight, white male who felt so slighted by the world that he scarred it as deeply as he could. He was a monster, but our world created him. His terrible, sad psychosis might never have arisen in a world free of the constant scrutiny of iPhones; seven people might be alive if Rodger had not been taught almost from birth that beauty, wealth and possessions are the markers of a good person.

Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured 13 others on May 23, in Isla Vista, California, a community where many UC Santa Barbara students live. All six of those killed that day were students at the university. This tragedy has been reported and dissected by every major news outlet in the country, including The Daily Californian. But UCSB’s ASUC-sponsored paper, the Bottom Line, chose to refrain from immediate devoted coverage of the incident outside of their Twitter feed. In fraught and dangerous circumstances, the Bottom Line made the wrong decision and abandoned its responsibility to its campus and community.

In the wake of Friday’s tragic events in Isla Vista, UC Santa Barbara’s sister campuses across the UC system have offered their support to mourn the victims and help the shaken campus recover.