Another tragic reminder to stay involved

There was something for everyone in Friday night's tragedy near the University of California, Santa Barbara that left seven people dead, including the attacker, and seven others wounded.

Gun control advocates will note that Elliot Rodger, a troubled college student who was able to convince authorities he was of no danger to himself or others, was found with three handguns, all purchased legally, with hundreds of rounds of ammunition in his car after he shot three victims and himself.

Gun rights advocates will note that no guns were involved in his first killings, three roommates he stabbed to death before taking to the streets with his pistols.

Detractors will call him a child of privilege, son of a Hollywood director who drove a BMW, outraged that his status wasn't enough to attract girls.

But by all accounts, his family did everything the could to avoid the tragedy, getting him into counseling over the years and alerting authorities after hearing of his plans and viewing YouTube videos and suicide and murders. Alcohol reportedly played a big part in his troubles.

Experts add the name of Elliot Rodger, 22, to that of Colorado movie theater shooter James Holmes and Sandy Hook school attacker Adam Lanza already on a list of young loners with no criminal history who went on shooting sprees, leaving devastated families in their wake.

"They all display deluded thinking and a lot of rage about feeling so marginalized," James Garbarino, a professor of psychology at Loyola University Chicago told the Associated Press.

While people with mental illness generally are not more violent than the rest of us, one exception is Jared Loughner, who killed six people in Arizona in 2011 and gravely injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. After his arrest, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Thankfully, mass killings like the latest one are rare.

But they do occur frequently enough that we shouldn't need to be reminded to keep involved with our friends and family, find them help when they need it, and do everything we can to avert such tragedies.