California Senator Who Fought for Gun Control Charged with Conspiracy to Traffic Arms

Well this is an interesting story:

California state Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) -- one of the state's strongest advocates for gun control -- was arrested Wednesday on charges that include scheming to defraud citizens of honest services and conspiracy to illegally traffic firearms.

[...]

Yee was reportedly at least $70,000 in debt following his defeat in the mayor's race, and needed to settle his accounts to run for California secretary of state in 2014. To do so, Yee agreed to perform "certain official acts" for an undercover FBI agent in exchange for donations, according to the affidavit.

During one exchange, Jackson and Yee arranged a meeting between the FBI agent and an illegal arms dealer to organize the sale of a large number of weapons to be imported through the Port of Newark in New Jersey, the affidavit said. Yee discussed details about the weapons during the meeting, according to the document.

I believe Mr. Yee's mistake in this matter was attempting to enter the arms black market. We know that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is the game in town for illegal arms trafficking. It wouldn't surprise me if Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) was simply doing a favor for the FBI by going after Yee.

This story is reminiscent of those stories of neoconservatives men who fought tooth and nail against legalized same-sex marriages getting caught having sex with another man. Based on his voting record it appears that Yee thinks nongovernmental individuals are incapable of owning firearms so he decided to traffic arms to, what he believed to be, nongovernmental individuals.

As Yee is a member of the oligarchy I doubt much will happen to him. He'll probably avoid cage time and may even be able to run for office again. But this case will still be fun to watch for the irony aspect alone.