It keeps happening over and over again. Six people, including several students at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), were killed by a deranged, 22-year-old student from another school, Elliott Rodger,Thirteen people were injured as well, and apparently Rodger killed himself as the cops closed in.

One of those killed was Christopher Martinez, a 20-year-old student at UCSB who was inside a deli. His father, Richard Martinez, gave this angry and moving speech at a press conference yesterday.

Yes, Rodger had serious problems, but serious problems for someone like him become deep tragedies for others when guns are readily available. It’s time to stop the madness, and quash the power of the nefarious National Rifle Association, which simply sees these deaths as a byproduct of our ineluctable right to own guns. The Second Amendment should either be construed as the right to own guns in a militia, or it should be overturned. That won’t happen, of course, for, when it comes to guns, Americans have lost their senses.

Can you hear the heartbreak in Mr. Martinez’s voice and not think that the NRA’s position, and the general American penchant for guns, is deeply dysfunctional? It is unbelievable but true that if many Americans had their way, the situation would be worse—all the way up to our right to own fully automatic weapons and portable missile launchers. Will that stop the slaughter of innocent people? I haven’t heard the NRA offer a solution.

The U.S. has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world: 88 guns per 100 people (that’s scary!). And no, we don’t have the highest rate of gun-induced homicide in the world—there are other social factors affecting these statistics—but it’s way up there.

Imagine if we had the same strict gun-ownership policies as England, where the rate of homicide by firearms is only 2% that of the U.S., and there are only 6.2 firearms per 100 people.

If you’re going to weigh in below on the side of the NRA, then please give me your solution to the problem of these recurrent killings.