Anti-Gun Political Activist Arrested...For Unlawful Gun Sales

Classical Values pointed me to this utterly unsurprising article in LA Weekly:

FEDERAL ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND FIREARMS AGENTS knocked first, then entered the Downey home of purported anti-gang activist Hector Marroquin on Wednesday, arresting him for selling silencers and weapons — including three assault rifles and a machine gun — to an undercover ATF agent.

The gun sales, some of which Marroquin, the founder of the gang-intervention group No Guns, transacted at his bar in the city of Cudahy, were captured on videotape and audiotape, said police officers present at his arrest.

Inside the house, the 51-year-old veteran of the 18th Street Gang surrendered as his daughter’s boyfriend, David Jimenez, a parolee at large, jumped out a window, tossed a gun into the backyard pool and climbed on the roof, authorities said. Officials said ATF agents then confronted him, he climbed back inside and was arrested and charged as a felon in possession of a gun.

Marroquin, an alleged associate of the prison-based Mexican Mafia, has grown accustomed to such intrusions, having been arrested many times over the years while at the same time being the founder and CEO of No Guns, which has received $1.5 million from Los Angeles City Hall via the much-criticized L.A. Bridges program designed by the Los Angeles City Council to keep youth out of gangs.

Last December, the L.A. Weekly exposed Marroquin’s allegedly persistent gang ties and suspected mafia association, in its “Broken Bridges” article, based on federal Drug Enforcement Agency memos, classified L.A. County Sheriff’s Department documents, wiretap transcripts and interviews with current and former law enforcers.

Since then, John Chavez, the head of L.A. Bridges, which funded No Guns through the Community Development Department, has lost his job.

On Wednesday, the L.A. District Attorney’s Office filed five charges related to Marroquin’s sale of automatic weapons and silencers to the undercover ATF agent, according to a criminal complaint filed in L.A. Superior Court. Also charged was Marroquin’s girlfriend, Sylvia Arellano, who police arrested the same day in Cudahy. Police searched Marroquin’s bar on Atlantic Avenue in Cudahy, as well as an auto yard in South Gate, where they recovered gang photos and journals.

You might think this government funded gun control group is just an example of an opportunistic criminal looking for an easier way to get money than criminal activity, but I think it is a bit worse than that:

At the time of his arrest Marroquin faced a separate gun possession charge, also reported in December by the Weekly. That trial has been delayed. Meanwhile, his son, Hector Marroquin Jr., a former No Guns officer who police say is an admitted 18th Street Gang member, has been indicted on charges of home invasion robbery and faces up to 40 years in prison.

Oh yes, it isn't just one bad apple:

No Guns finally lost its funding last year, after city officials found the organization had engaged in nepotism and misappropriation of public funds. Along with his wife, son and daughter, who police say is a member of the Hawthorne L’il Watts Gang, the Marroquins made more than $200,000 a year in salaries — public funds paid by L.A. taxpayers — to steer children away from gangs and help active gangsters escape the life.

However, a report by civil rights lawyer Connie Rice and independent audits have stated that L.A. Bridges, which has funneled more than $100 million to programs like No Guns, cannot show that it has reduced gang activity, and the city council lacks any meaningful measures for determining success. Just last week, another purported gang-member-turned-good, 30-year-old Mario Corona, with a group called Communities in Schools, also a recipient of L.A. Bridges money, was sentenced to 32 months in prison for transporting a large amount of methamphetamine and being a felon with a gun.

This isn't the first time that an anti-gun activist has demonstrated that their ideology is primarily a matter of projection:

A bereaved mother whose son was shot and killed nearly two years ago -- and who spoke out against gun violence and memorialized shooting victims at the "Million Mom March" rally in Washington, D.C., last Mother's Day -- was herself convicted of shooting a man she wrongly believed was her son's killer.

Barbara Graham, the Washington Post reported Thursday, "was found guilty in D.C. Superior Court … of trying to avenge her son's death by shooting a young man" last year that "she blamed for the killing."

Graham, who lost her own son in 1999 in a shooting death at a Martin Luther King, Jr. rally, became active in a Washington-area group, "Mothers on the Move Spiritually," in the months following her son's death. The group helped sponsor the MMM event, where Graham "spoke out … and helped memorialize the dead," the paper said.

The Million Moms March, which becomes nine months old as an organization Feb. 14, has become one of the nation's leading advocates of stringent gun control. The group, which promotes gun-control activism among the nation's mothers, says it is "dedicated to preventing gun death and injury and supporting victims and survivors of gun trauma."

And this anti-gun activist, who wants pro-gun legislators killed:

(CNSNews.com) - An Illinois gun-rights group says it plans to complain to the Catholic Church after a Chicago priest at the weekend appeared to call for the murder of a suburban gun shop owner.

During a Rainbow/PUSH Coalition protest at Chuck's Gun Shop & Range on Saturday, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina's Church, threatened to "snuff" shop owner John Riggio.

The Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) has posted online what is says is a recording of Pfleger's remarks.

PflegerIn the audio clip, the priest is heard being introduced to the crowd by the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Immediately therafter, Pfleger launches into a tirade.

"I want the NRA [National Rifle Association] to understand - you have a lot of money, but money can't buy moral authority and it can't buy justice or freedom, and we will fight you, NRA," he says.

"We will fight you on every angle [sic], no matter how much money you've got, we will embarrass you, and we will embarrass every legislator that takes money from you. We will call them out by name, by district. We will expose you, legislators."

Pfleger then turns his attention to Riggio. "He's the owner of Chuck's. John Riggio. R-i-g-g-i-o. We're going to find you and snuff you out … you know you're going to hide like a rat. You're going to hide but like a rat we're going to catch you and pull you out. We are not going to allow you to continue to hide when we're here …"

"We're going to keep coming back, and like Reverend Jackson says, it takes civil disobedience, if it takes whatever it takes … we're going to snuff out John Riggio, we're going to snuff out legislators that are voting … and we are coming for you because we are not going to sit idly. Keep on fighting, people. Keep on fighting, keep on fighting."

There are people that should not own guns, no question about it. And they are often those screeching most loudly that no one should have them.

UPDATE: David Codrea points out that along with advocating assassination for holding the "wrong" positions, this priest has a long history of using his church for partisan political purposes. I'm not keen on the IRS bullying churches into silence by threatening to pull their tax-exempt status--but I would like this to be a consistent position. Either they do this for all churches, or for none. Right now, black churches are allowed to pull stunts like Father Pfleger does--but churches that lean towards the right end of the political spectrum are not.

One of Codrea's readers contacted Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and asked them to take on Pfleger's church concerning this. I am very skeptical that anything will happens, since Americans United for the Separation of Church and State is a liberal group, and therefore not committed to integrity or honesty.