“We’re from the government and we’re here to help.” Those words should strike fear into the heart of any American. Too often government “protects and serves” the little people – good and hard – making any situation worse.
Imagine you’re a senior citizen living as a single woman in a not-so-great neighborhood in Illinois’ capital city. You’re in the bathroom and you hear what sounds like someone trying to break out a kitchen window to gain entry. You holler for the would-be intruder to go away and call 911.
You’re grateful when police show up after just a few minutes. They look around and find no evidence of the potential home intruder. After chatting with the somewhat helpful officers for a few minutes, they ask if you’ve got a gun. You answer in the affirmative, thinking you’ve got nothing to hide. After all, you’re familiar with firearms from your time serving your nation in the armed forces in your youth.
The only problem is your FOID card expired recently and you didn’t know it. The cops then take your Smith & Wesson pistol, a loaded magazine, and your holster. “Get your FOID renewed and then you can come get it back,” they tell you
Fast forward a few of months. Rena Rojas now has a freshly-printed and valid Firearms Owner ID card, so she calls the Springfield PD to arrange to pick up her gun. The “public servants” at the local cop shop give her the runaround and tell her to call the State’s Attorney’s office.
She does, and at first she couldn’t even get anyone to talk with her about the case. Finally, after a few calls, she gets an office assistant who takes a message for Sangamon County State’s Attorney Dan Wright.
He doesn’t call back.
He’s probably a busy guy.
So Ms. Rojas lathers, rinses and repeats. Over and over again. Over the course of a couple of months or more, she leaves message after message. The best thing she hears is that approval to release the gun “is on his desk,” referring to Mr. Wright.
Then she called Guns Save Life pleading for help.
Right away, our leadership was appalled. Welcome to government at its finest. Call the police for a prowler and they take your gun (and your peace of mind) with them when they go. Then they won’t give it back because you’re a little person with virtually no recourse from government agents.
I wrote to the Sangamon County State’s Attorney’s office almost two weeks ago on February 22nd to prompt them to do the right thing and return the woman’s firearm and her peace of mind.
Greetings Mr. Wright & Sangamon County SA staff:
Nobody from the State’s Attorney’s office or the Springfield police has contacted Ms. Rojas. Or returned our email.
Clearly they don’t have the time to make things right for an average person…a veteran living by herself in a not-so-great part of Springfield.
But rest assured Mr. Wright has plenty of time to pose for selfies with folks like celebrity attorney Ben Crump.
I found Mr. Wright’s direct email address from some other court filings and emailed him asking for comment. He hasn’t responded for 72+ hours (almost two business days) now.
Here’s the potential happy ending to this story. If Rena Rojas doesn’t have her pistol back by next Monday evening, she’ll have a new gun and her peace of mind restored, courtesy of some of our GSL members.
Who knows? Maybe Mr. Wright will soon have an opportunity to explain to a judge why this woman shouldn’t have her property returned to her.
UPDATE: Sangamon County States Attorney Dan Wright called Ms. Rojas within about two hours of the TTAG story going live. After she got off the phone with him, she called me to relate that Mr. Wright had indeed finally reached out to her. Furthermore, according to her, he explained that it was a complicated process to return her firearm but that he would work to make it happen as quickly as possible.
In a separate communication with me, he raked me over the coals. He asserted that my story was “replete with misstatements and misinformation lacking basic due diligence to get the facts correct when writing about such an important issue.” To which I replied I wrote the story as I had it, and at the time I had not heard any response from either of my earlier emails requesting comment or follow-up.
We’ll have more in the coming days after Ms. Rojas receives her gun from the authorities.