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The Silence is Deafening

No uproar. Nothing to see here.


Pedestrians flee during a drive-by shooting that left a 36-year-old woman dead in Santa Ana on Sunday, Dec. 4, 2022. (Courtesy of the Santa Ana Police Department)




Maria Del Refugio Mora, a 36 year old mother of three who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time in California nowadays - grocery shopping - was shot in a parking lot. She died 5 days later.


She was definitely not the intended victim. Santa Ana Police quickly determined it was a gang-related shooting. The two shooters were gunning for a couple of teenagers who were walking into the parking lot that afternoon shortly before 4:30pm.


Police Chief David Valentin said at the press conference announcing the arrests of the perpetrators, “Why is someone driving around the city shooting at people indiscriminately? That shouldn’t happen. I’m tired of innocent people being impacted for life”.


Maybe the answer is a lot clearer than we think.


“According to Orange County Superior Court records, Remmer prior to the fatal shooting was already facing two felony counts of carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in public. He has not yet entered a plea in that case, and was scheduled to appear in court for an arraignment on those charges in early January.”


If criminal gun violence is so heinous (and it is) how was he still walking around?


Gun control rants by politicians and advocates attacking the rights of legal, law abiding gun owners ring hollow in the face of the silence we constantly witness when something like this happens. THIS is what happens all the time and yet we hear crickets.


I went on a police ride along with the Garden Grove Police Department three years ago. GGPD had stopped a car with a couple of known gang members and we answered the call for backup. The driver was out on parole but managed to do something that triggered a felony warrant out for his arrest a few weeks later. When searched they found an unregistered gun in the car. We got the duty of transporting him to lockup and my ride along officer let me see his rap sheet on the computer while he drove. I was shocked to see that he had five previous gun arrests that resulted in one misdemeanor and two felony convictions. Yet, he was out on the streets after only serving 3 months of a 4 year sentence. The officer just shook his head. “He’ll probably be out in a couple weeks, tops. We’ll try to keep an eye on him. Just trying to keep our fingers in the holes in the dam”.


The evil of gun violence is not on us, it is on the criminals and the lenient system that this increasingly progressive legal system is forcing on an endangered public. The death of Maria Del Refugio Mora is on them. Two felony gun possession counts and yet he’s running free but we gun owners are the problem?


Makes you wonder what’s really going on here.

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