Support for LAist comes from
Become a sponsor
Audience-funded nonprofit news
Donate
Stay Connected

LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio, a member-supported public media network.

Audience-funded nonprofit news
Listen
Donate
Podcasts Take Two
Can gun control advocates effectively press Congress for reform?
solid orange rectangular banner
()
Take Two Logo
May 28, 2014
Listen • 7:01
Can gun control advocates effectively press Congress for reform?
After tragedies in Isla Vista and Newtown, gun control advocates hoped to enact stronger measures in Congress but those laws never materialized. Their strategy instead is focus on state and local laws.
A couple embrace before a memorial service for the victims and families of Friday's rampage at Harder Stadium on the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara on Tuesday, May 27, 2014 in the Isla Vista area near Goleta, California.
A couple embrace before a memorial service for the victims and families of Friday's rampage at Harder Stadium on the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara on Tuesday, May 27, 2014 in the Isla Vista area near Goleta, California.
(
Chris Carlson/AP
)

After tragedies in Isla Vista and Newtown, gun control advocates hoped to enact stronger measures in Congress but those laws never materialized. Their strategy instead is focus on state and local laws.

Yesterday, Richard Martinez, the father of slain student Christopher Michaels-Martinez, spoke to a packed stadium at UC Santa Barbara following last Friday's killing spree by Elliot Rodger.

Martinez asked the crowd to call on their elected officials for stricter gun control:

"I got a phone call from a congressperson to express their condolences," he said during a memorial service, "and I told this person I wasn't interested in a phone call from them to express their condolences and sadness about what happened to Chris. That was unacceptable, until that person went back to Congress and actually did something. They had done nothing, and that's why Chris died."

But will this plea make any difference?

Laura Cutiletta, senior staff attorney at the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, joins Take Two to explain how  gun control advocates hope to shift the debate after many years of inaction by Congress.