New Laws Linked To Isla Vista Tragedy

Last spring Elliot Rodger’s mother was disturbed by videos her son posted online; He had videos of himself talking about punishing women for rejecting him and men for having girlfriends.

She called police to check on his welfare but they never saw the videos and never went inside his Isla Vista apartment, where they may have found a number of weapons used in a killing spree May 23.

Rodger stabbed three young men to death in his apartment before opening fire in Isla Vista. He also tried to run people down with his black BMW.

By nightfall four men, and two women were dead and more than a dozen people were injured, all of them students.

Under two new California laws, family members can ask for a restraining order that bars a person believed to be a public risk from possessing firearms for three weeks and law enforcement can develop policies for officers to check a state database on gun ownership while investigating someone considered dangerous.

The laws may have prevented at least half of the bloodshed.

When UCSB campus police closed in on Rodger they said he crashed his car and took his own life.

A number of weapons were found inside his car.