“Brady Campaign To Honor Yee For Violence Prevention”

That was in happier days, when California State Sen. Leland Yee was winning national applause for his gun-control efforts. Yesterday the San Jose Mercury-News reported:

In a stunning criminal complaint, State Sen. Leland Yee has been charged with conspiring to traffic in firearms and public corruption as part of a major FBI operation spanning the Bay Area. … Yee asked whether he wanted automatic weapons, and the agent confirmed he did — about $500,000 to $2.5 million worth.”

Is it time to retire our “Do as we say” tag yet? Eliot Spitzer got exposed after crusading for longer sentences for “johns.” Czars of alcohol-abuse programs keep getting nabbed on the road after having a half dozen too many. Rep. Bob Filner groped his way to the podium to chair hearings on women’s issues.

Now there’s this. Maybe Sen. Yee came down so hard on private gun dealers because he wanted to muscle into the business himself.

The entire criminal information, which beggars belief in its colorful detail (Chinese gangs, Russian arms runners, Muslim insurgents in the Philippines) is here, with highlights summarized by Scott Lucas of San Francisco magazine. The San Francisco Chronicle editorialized: “Few observers of San Francisco politics are surprised by [Yee’s] arrest on corruption charges.” Then there’s this sidelight: “Keith Jackson, accused by the FBI on Wednesday of being involved in a murder-for-hire scheme and a gun- and drug-trafficking conspiracy, was San Francisco’s top elected educator during the late 1990s.” [San Francisco Chronicle]

9 Comments

  • […] does it surprise you that this guy was a huge gun control advocate? That he was honored by the Brady Campaign for his efforts? That he wanted to crack down on bullet buttons and 3-D printed guns and […]

  • I used to be an anti-gun Democrat. Now I’m a registered Republican and NRA member. I couldn’t take the BS from the left.

    It’s a sad day when you realize that the “wingnut conspiracy theorists” may be on to something.

  • LOL, was that before or after he began importing illegal firearms into our country?

  • […] (H/T: Overlawyered) […]

  • One should not be too quick to jump to conclusions regarding Sen. Yee. He could, after all, be working for the ATF on an undercover operation.

  • When he is released, he can move to Georgia. In a few days, we can carry ANYWHERE…and we’ll need more dealers to keep up with the demand. Still waiting for the brady Bunch to comment…

  • Robert,

    You’re not the only one – I too “used to be an anti-gun Democrat. Now I’m a registered Republican and NRA member.”

    Perhaps there is hope for others who invest the time to learn the facts about guns and crime, and the reasons the Constitution includes the 2nd amendment.

  • Typical progressive! Use the government to stifle free enterprise and then dole out the riches to the favored few (he just favored himself).

    Oh never mind, I thought we were talking about energy production– completely different.

  • […] California Sen. Leland Yee, D-S.F., would-be censor of violent video games, whose involvement in a wildly colorful arms-smuggling scandal, though neglected in some national media circles, lends irony to talk of the psychologically […]