Gun Advocate Wants Priest's 'Snuff' Comments Investigated
By Nathan Burchfiel
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
May 31, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - A gun rights advocate wants the Justice Department to investigate a Catholic priest who during a weekend anti-gun rally threatened to "snuff out" a Chicago gun store owner.

As Cybercast News Service reported earlier, Rev. Michael Pfleger said Saturday in comments aimed at Chuck's Gun Shop owner John Riggio, "we're going to find out and snuff you out."

Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina's Church in Chicago, told the crowd "we're going to snuff out John Riggio, we're going to snuff out legislators that are voting ... against our gun laws and we're coming for you because we are not going to sit idly."

To "snuff" can mean to sniff, inhale, or extinguish. It is also commonly used as a slang term for "to kill."

Pfleger made the comments during an anti-gun rally sponsored by Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. Pfleger and his church are active in anti-gun and anti-gang efforts in Chicago.

In a letter to Assistant U.S. Attorney General Wan Kim obtained by Cybercast News Service, Second Amendment Foundation President Alan Gottlieb requested an investigation of the threat and defended Riggio's character.

"Mr. Riggio is the operator of a legal business that operates under both Illinois state law and federal statute," he wrote. "He has harmed nobody to my knowledge, and yet he has been repeatedly subjected to harassment, character assassination and now, what appears to be a threat of bodily harm."

Gottlieb said he viewed Pfleger's comments as "a serious threat to Mr. Riggio's safety and civil rights" and urged Kim to investigate.

Vince Clark, a spokesman for Pfleger, told Cybercast News Service Wednesday that the pastor wasn't aware of the violent connotation of "snuff" and didn't mean to threaten bodily harm. (Listen to Pfleger's comments)

"I've never heard that compared before with the word murder," Clark said. "He [Pfleger] was never aware of that. If that was the case he would never have used that language."

Clark said Pfleger's use of the word "was meaning 'to expose' but to do no bodily harm." He said the backlash from gun rights advocates is "uncalled for, but they're going to take the angle that they desire."

Cynthia Magnuson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, said it was unlikely that anyone at the DOJ had received the letter yet.

Representatives for the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday and Wednesday.

Riggio told Cybercast News Service Wednesday that he was "surprised" when he heard Pfleger's comment, and took them as "definitely a threat."

"Some words can mean a whole bunch of different stuff," he said. "That word, I think if you polled 100 people I think 99, maybe 100 ... would come out with the same definition."

Riggio said there was little excuse for Pfleger to make a verbal mistake. "He's a professional speaker along with Jackson," he said. "I would have suspected that the person that might have made a boo-boo talking would have been me. I'm in retail. These guys do that for a living."

Riggio said he is consulting with a lawyer to determine whether to take any actions against Pfleger or Jackson. In the meantime, he said, "I'm busy here. I've got a wife and three kids. I've got a business to run."

James Accurso, a spokesman for the Chicago Archdiocese, said he was not aware of the rally or Pfleger's participation in it until after it took place Saturday.

He told Cybercast News Service that the church had no plans to take disciplinary action against Pfleger.

"If the reports are accurate and he did make a threat - and we're not certain of that - we feel this should be handled by the civil authorities," Accurso said.



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