While everyone is still reeling from the horror unleashed in Buffalo on Saturday, the news broke on Sunday that there had been a church shooting in Laguna Woods, California.

Coupled with the news of a shooting at a Houston flea market (which reportedly was more of a gun fight than a shooting, but left two dead), the Laguna Woods shooting had many people asking what is happening, and why were all of these mass shootings happening all at once?

While the media was spending plenty of time happily pinning the Buffalo shooting on the Republican party, Tucker Carlson, or any other political rival that they thought they could hang it on, the details of the Laguna Woods church shooting began to be released. Those details are a surefire guarantee that this particular crime is going to be flushed down the national memory hole as soon as possible.

First of all, the Buffalo shooting fits the media’s preferred race narrative – the alleged white supremacist shooter who intentionally targeted a specific group of people. In this case, the black community in Buffalo, at a location with a lot of people – the grocery store. There are now reports that the shooter researched his target, and arrived a day ahead of his intended crime in order to “perform reconnaissance” in order to kill as many people as possible. At Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, the congregation involved was a Taiwanese church using the space, and the shooter as a 68 year old Asian man.

The congregants were members of the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church, which has been holding services at Geneva for 10 years.”

Tom Cramer, leader of the Presbytery of Los Ranchos and a former pastor at the Geneva Presbyterian Church, said the shooting happened at a lunch reception honoring the former pastor of the Taiwanese church, who is returning to Taiwan to lead a congregation there. Cramer did not know if the pastor was harmed in the shooting.”

New: A law enforcement source said officials believe the suspect was a 68-year-old Asian man who is originally from Las Vegas. No other details were available.

The victims were described as mostly Asian and mostly of Taiwanese descent, authorities said. https://t.co/S566hPeRum

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) May 15, 2022

Strike one – the shooter is not white, and is also Asian like his victims.

Second, the Buffalo shooter used the left’s favorite scary black gun – an AR-15, which Governor Kathy Hochul brought up in media interviews on Sunday mutiple times, adding that the “high capacity magazine” made the AR-15 “illegal” under New York law. There is an open question as to whether the shooter should have been able to buy any firearms at all, given that he was investigated and held for a short period of time for a mental health evaluation after threatening to shoot up his high school last year. However, it doesn’t look like any charges were filed, and depending on the mental health evaluation, his ability to purchase a firearm may not have been affected. Will the Buffalo shooter end up being another case of authorities dropping the ball? We shall see. In the Laguna Woods shooting, though, the shooter was armed with two handguns, according to law enforcement.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department detained the suspect, an Asian man in his 60s, and recovered two commercially available handguns from the scene, officials said. The suspect is not likely from this area, they said.”

Strike two – handguns were used, not “assault rifles.”

Third, the reaction of the two communities, when they realized that they were under attack, appears to have been dramatically different. In Buffalo, the retired police officer and security guard at the supermarket, Aaron Salter Jr., is being remembered as a hero who valiantly attempted to take the shooter down.

Aaron Salter Jr. was identified by his son as the beloved Tops Friendly Markets security guard and former Buffalo cop who tried to stop the teenage suspect, according to the Daily Beast.”

“Today is a shock,” his son Aaron Salter III told the news site.”

“I’m pretty sure he saved some lives today. He’s a hero.”

Salter Jr. drew his gun and fired at Payton Gendron, but his bullet could not pierce the 18-year-old’s armored tactical gear, officials said.”

Gendron then fatally shot the guard before he continued his hate-fueled rampage in the grocery store, which serves the predominantly black neighborhoods of Masten Park and Kingsley, according to Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia.”

The deceased victims of the Buffalo shooting ranged in age from 86 to 32, with most being older people in their 60’s and 70’s. One can assume that the shooter was not only allegedly targeting black people, but older people who were unable to get away from him. The congregation in Laguna Woods, perhaps mindful of what had just happened in Buffalo, refused to run. By the time police arrived at the church, members of the congregation had not only disarmed the shooter, but they had him “hogtied” with extension cords.

Between 30 and 40 people were gathered for lunch after a morning church service when gunfire erupted shortly before 1:30 p.m., officials said. When deputies arrived, parishioners had the gunman hog-tied and in custody.”

“That group of churchgoers displayed what we believe is exceptional heroism and bravery in intervening to stop the suspect. They undoubtedly prevented additional injuries and fatalities,” (Undersheriff Jeff) Hallock said. “I think it’s safe to say that had people not intervened, it could have been much worse.”

And how did the congregation take the shooter down?

The man opened fire as the churchgoers were taking photographs with the pastor, who was visiting from Taiwan.”

After the shots rang out, the pastor picked up a chair and hit the gunman with it, (Yorba Linda city councilwoman Peggy) Huang was told. Then other members of the congregation grabbed him, Huang said. She added that many members of the church have military backgrounds.”

Strike three – the victims refused to be victims. And yes, one person was killed and four others are in critical condition, but as the undersheriff said, those numbers could have been much worse but for the bravery of those who took a stand against evil. Aaron Salter Jr. in Buffalo should be lauded as a hero who laid down his life for his community. But the pastor who attacked the shooter with nothing more than a chair, and the other members who helped disarm and tie him up, should also be lauded as heroes.

So we now have three big strikes against the narrative in the Laguna Woods shooting. These facts all but guarantee that the church shooting is going to be nothing more than a local news story within 48 hours, while Buffalo will get numerous think pieces, a Department of Justice investigation, and the focus of Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) because this is “the current thing,” their new shiny object that they hope will shift the narrative and their momentum.

Meanwhile, the church shooting in Laguna Woods will be memory holed out of the national conversation, just like the subway shooter from a month ago (didn’t fit the narrative), the DC shooter who fired at a school just a couple of weeks ago (also not a white man), and most famously, the Congressional baseball shooter who the left conveniently likes to forget about when they scream about Republicans “inciting” violence. The media only promotes what fits their preferred narrative. And that means the bravery of those who stood up to evil in the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church congregation will be forgotten, too. But we can honor their bravery and their loss, while acknowledging the heroism and horror in Buffalo at the same time.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click