Thompson misleads
U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (Letters, April 15) writes: “The recent shooting in Sacramento was the worst mass shooting in the city's history.” Reading The Reporter's Sunday edition, it was evident that the “worst mass shooting” was an exchange of shots between rival criminal gang members. As is almost always with gang shootings, the innocent bystanders got the worst of it.
Next Rep. Thompson writes of the murder a few weeks before in which the father shot his three children and a courtordered chaperone during a supervised visit. Then he writes of the murders as if the guns were the perpetrators rather than an implement.
Rep. Thompson doesn't want to bring attention to the real perpetrators. All of the shooters in the Sacramento gang shooting were known to law enforcement. All had benefited from lax laws passed by the California state legislators and ill-informed voters. One of the gang members, Mr. Martin, was released from state prison only a few weeks before he participated in the ambush of rival criminals. He had been released after serving only four years of a 10-year sentence. How could that be? Proposition 57. Written by the state legislature and passed by gullible voters in 2015.
Mr. Mora had been arrested in Merced County just a few days before he was charged with committing the murders. He was arrested for DUI and assaulting a CHP officer. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had requested that he be turned over to them. But because our state government has declared California a sanctuary state, Mr. Mora was released.
Much is made of the fact that “ghost guns” have no serial number. A 2020 Justice Department report stated that 93% of guns used in crimes were stolen. So, if the serial number had not been ground off, it will only point to where the gun had originally been stolen from.
Passing yet another federal regulation that the law-abiding citizens will, of course, obey is easy. It's an easy way to make it look as if you did something. To fix the real problem, you will first have to get the California politicians to see that they destroyed the state's criminal justice system.