Last month, we wrote about how the Springfield, IL Police Department confiscated a capital city woman’s gun after she called police for a prowler. Her Firearms Owner ID card had expired a couple of months earlier and she didn’t realize it.
Rena Rojas, a senior citizen and disabled veteran, lives by herself in the not-so-nice part of the Land of Lincoln’s capital city. When the police took her Smith & Wesson Shield EZ .380 from her that day, they also took her peace-of-mind. For months now, her inability to sleep well has only exacerbated some health issues.
She applied for a new FOID card and ran into bureaucrats who didn’t have the time or the inclination to return her messages asking for the gun’s return for weeks and weeks.
Fast forward…she called Guns Save Life asking for help. The State’s Attorney’s office staff didn’t seem very eager to help us intercede on Ms. Rojas’ behalf. Surprise! The State’s Attorney’s staff ignored my first email for over a week.
I even warned them what would happen in my emails.
I sent a second email directly to State’s Attorney Dan Wright’s email address that I obtained from unrelated court filings. I urged him to do the right thing and return this woman’s gun and her peace-of-mind. Again, I got no response for two hours shy of two business days.
That all changed in less than two hours after the initial story appeared at The Truth About Guns.
Dan Wright, the prosecutor himself, reached out to her in a phone call. He didn’t apologize for failing to return her calls or act sooner, but he said he would “cut through the red tape” in the “complicated” process to get her gun back to her.
True to his word, a few days later, she received another phone call telling her she could come get her gun after lunch on a Friday.
At Guns Save Life, our members heard the story and it led to an outpouring of support. Our members made some donations for Rena, including a 20-gauge pump shotgun, buckshot and some slugs, .380 defensive ammo, and a membership to Guns Save Life. A retired professor who’s also a GSL member and who taught at the US Army War College donated some pepper spray and “Army Strong” stickers for his newest Army vet friend.
Ms. Rojas joined us at the local Guns Save Life meeting the following Monday. Nearly 130 people were there to meet her and hear her story first-hand. What’s more, she had no idea the collection of defensive tools that we’d accumulated to present to her.
People offered everything from well-wishes to one-on-one coaching from some of GSL’s instructors at a later date.
She’s now well-equipped in case Mr. Prowler decides to return. Unfortunately, I’m not sure after what happened with her last call to 911 for a prowler that she’ll ever call the police again unless it’s for a dead perp in her kitchen.
I also presented her a one-year subscription to the Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network. Why? So Rena would have the best legal defense money could buy if she has to defend herself in the future.
During her time speaking, she nearly broke down with emotion at the outpouring of support she experienced by a lot of people she had never met before. Over and over she thanked everyone from the bottom of her heart. “I thanked the officers that came out that day, too. But unlike them, you’re adding to my peace of mind instead of taking it away.”
When I called her the following day, she became emotional, saying she was still struggling to process the experience. “You people are the greatest. You didn’t even know me and you helped me more than you can imagine. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Meanwhile the Sangamon County State’s Attorney Dan Wright sent me an email excoriating me for, he said, not getting the whole story correct and misstating the timeline. Regarding the timeline, he was correct. I didn’t verify the dates the emails were sent before writing the story. That was my mistake.
That doesn’t change the fact that no one from his office returned Rena’s calls over the many weeks before we got involved. It doesn’t change the fact that he and his office failed to respond to my emails for over a week in the case of the first email and almost two business days for the email I sent to Wright’s direct email.
Sadly, since all this happened, Rena’s spent a number of days in and out of the hospital with her health issues. We’re sending prayers and well wishes for her recovery and look forward to her returning.
Even though I won’t be getting any Christmas cards from State’s Attorney Wright, it still felt good being able to help a good person get a positive outcome from government bureaucracy.
And helping veterans in need, especially disabled veterans, is always a good thing.