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Subscribe to RSSBecause Congress has prohibited a national computerized database of gun sales, tracking the sale of firearms is a cumbersome process forcing investigators to rely on research methods from decades past. And if the sale occurred through a private seller – which is how 80 percent of those convicted of gun crimes get their weapons -- no documentation is required. NBC's Michael Isikoff reports.
Department of Justice
Richard Schmidt
FBI agents recently warned community leaders in the Detroit area about a possible racist plot by a convicted felon and alleged neo-Nazi sympathizer who was arrested after he was discovered with an arsenal of assault rifles and other weapons, a law enforcement official tells NBC News.
“The FBI averted a catastrophe in this case, there’s no doubt about it,” Steven M. Dettelbach, the U.S. attorney in Cleveland, said in an interview.
New details about the case of Richard Schmidt, the owner of a sporting goods store in Bowling Green, Ohio, dramatically highlight what law enforcement officials say are major loopholes in the nation’s gun laws. Schmidt, 47, is a convicted felon who spent 13 years in Ohio state prison for a homicide after being convicted of killing a man and wounding two others in a shooting during a traffic stop, according to state prison records. Under federal law, Schmidt, who was released on parole in 2003, is barred from possessing any firearms.
Yet when FBI agents last December searched his home and store, they discovered a cache of 18 weapons that included AR-15 assault rifles, 9 mm Ruger and Sig Sauer pistols, shotguns, high-capacity magazines and more than 40,000 rounds of ammunition. Schmidt was originally reported to have been arrested on charges of trafficking in counterfeit goods, but was indicted last month on four federal charges —including possessing illegal weapons, body armor and ammunition. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
“As a matter of policy, I don’t comment on pending cases,” his lawyer, Andy Hart, a federal public defender in Toledo, said when reached by telephone.
Dettelbach, who is overseeing the case, said that federal agents have been unable to determine how and where Schmidt obtained his weapons, prompting officials to conclude he likely acquired them at gun shows or through private sales -- where under federal law no background checks are required. .
“It’s scary,” he said about Schmidt’s arsenal of weapons. “It’s not … that I won’t say” where Schmidt got his guns. “It’s that sitting here today as a senior federal law enforcement official in northern Ohio, I can’t say.”
The investigation into Schmidt was conducted by a FBI Joint terrorism Task Force whose agents said they discovered he was tracking African American and Jewish leaders in the Detroit area. When agents conducted their search, they said they found evidence suggesting Schmidt harbored neo-Nazi sympathies, including a video of the 2005 national meeting of the National Socialist Movement — in which speakers wore black swastika arm bands and gave the Nazi “Sieg Heil” salute. “This is a war! This is a battle for our survival!” one speaker shouts on a video of the meeting obtained by NBC News. Other seized items, according to federal search warrants, included a list of national Jewish-owned businesses and paraphernalia from the “Waffen SS,” Adolph Hitler’s military force in Germany.
'Very unsettling, very disturbing'
Two community leaders briefed on the case tell NBC News that agents also found a notebook in which Schmidt had listed the names, addresses and other personal information of Detroit area community leaders. Although Schmidt was already in custody, and remains in jail pending trial, the evidence in the notebook prompted agents to warn the leaders about what they had found.
Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit NAACP, said that FBI agents showed him a page of one of Schmidt’s notebooks which included information about members of Anthony’s family as well as distances between his home, office and his church. They also told him they were concerned about “a possible threat against the NAACP and me in particular,” he said.
“It was mind blowing,” Anthony said. “Very unsettling, very disturbing, and it really kind of made me angry.” When he was told about Schmidt’s weapons, Anthony said, “I made the comment that this guy is a one man army and they said, ‘Yes, looks like it.’”
The FBI gave a similar briefing to Scott Kaufman, the executive director of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. He said agents also showed him a page of Schmidt’s notebook showing his name and the names of others in leadership positions in his organization, as well as the names of tenants in his building and driving directions to his office.
“When I saw my name on a piece of paper along with information about our organization and our building written by an alleged neo-Nazi, it was certainly unnerving,” he said.
Anthony and Kaufman said the FBI asked them not to share copies of the notebook pages with NBC News because Schmidt’s case is ongoing. They also said agents had no specific evidence of what Schmidt might have been planning – or whether he was working with anybody else. An FBI spokeswoman declined comment.
Feds investigate how suspected white supremacist -- a felon -- obtained arsenal
Federal law does not require such checks for private sales or gun show purchases. Seventeen states have mandated them for handgun purchases at gun shows, though Ohio is not among them. Only six states require background checks for all firearms purchases.
A new study by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research has found that 80 percent of those convicted of gun crimes acquire their weapons through private sales – making it virtually impossible for federal agents to trace where they come from or who is providing them.
“There’s no documentation required for private transactions. So whatever occurs in that zone is invisible to us,” Charles Houser, the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms National Tracing Center in Martinsburg, W.Va., said in an interview.
Related coverage: 'Flashpoint: Guns in America,' an NBC News special report
Dettelbach echoed those concerns. “Our current set of laws for how guns get out the community has a lot of holes,” he said. “It’s almost like Swiss cheese.”
(Federal prosecutors recently filed court papers showing that reputed Boston mob figure James “Whitey” Bulger was able to buy at least 15 handguns and a shotgun while he was on the run as one of the FBI’s "Most Wanted" fugitives. Officials believe he acquired them at gun shows or from private sellers.
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Leave a Comment:
Libs just doing their part for msn.
Hope he has FUN in prison, Bubba is waiting.
I'll take future domestic terrorist for $500, Alex...
The "fun" will begin when he gets out.
Coming soon, all for folks just like you.
Why is it Liberal to not want nuts to have guns ?
Why is it Liberal to know that eventually Fossil Fuel will deplete and if we don't
get new renewable energy future generations will have none.
47 % have guns ? Where do you get those figures From Mitt Romney ?
There are about 300 millions guns in this country they know about in the hands of about 100 million and growing. It may be twice that amount in illegal guns.
Paint ball used to be the rage until the kiddies who grew up on "Call Of Duty" and "Assasins " Video games
became of age and decided to buy the real thing.
This nut was a convicted felon who owned a sporting goods store.
Virtually every sporting goods store sells guns.
So the gun manufacturers were more than likely selling guns to a convicted Felon who owns a Sporting goods store. Because the only thing there are concerned about is making a profit.
Just like many legal Gun owners are concerned more about making a buck. Than making sure guns do not fall into the wrong hands.
If you don't see a problem with that ? Liberals are not the problem you are.
and proof of the real problem, Why was he back on the street ? the folks who let him out should be charged at least with endangering the public! In detroit any white man with a gun could be branded neo nazi. Media tagged him neo-nazi just to stir the pot.when the real Fascists are in the White House !! I have been buying Guns for 40 yrs , and have yet to buy even 1 without gov. paperwork or background checks ,you cant buy one even at gun show,without going through this. And for all you folks who think you can, well go try it. And then shut up already!Now they are trying to make it racist ! Would you live in Detroit without personal protection, I think not! If this is ongoing investigation ,how can this info. be made public ? Yet info from Sandyhook is privelaged information.
When writing about the Waffen SS, be sure to mention that it was the military arm of the Nazi Party, separate from the regular German army. The SS was responsible for some of the worst war crimes during WWII.
Richard Schmidt, the convicted felon, killer and right-wing neo-Nazi, had 18 guns when apprehended.
James "Whitey" Bulger had 29 guns in his Santa Monica apartment when the 16 year hunt caught up with the Boston gangster.
The NRA dodge/lie/propaganda is criminals will always get guns. They steal them. No, dummies, they buy them. Every single gun they've been able to trace, from these two criminal's arsenals, was bought from a private seller or at a gun show.
What most of us Americans want is to be able to trace these guns to the asswipe who sold them to these criminals. Then we want to fine and/or jail these people.
Perhaps you might reexamine FBI crime stats about where most criminal guns actually come from? I would tend to put more credence on their research than your ill informed tripe.
This comes from the FBI you imbecile.
This article asssumes that if background checks were required, felons would follow this law. This article also assumes that those who provided the felon with guns were unaware he was a felon or what his intentions were.
Most likely, his fellow, no criminal (yet) nazi's provided him with the firearms. What law do we create that will prevent those who could care less about the law to follow the law? Laws are made, laws are broken, then laws that make breaking the law illegal are made
And why was a murderer released after 13 years?
We can't fault the fellow for trying to improve his community. Certainly cant go anywhere but up in Detroit.
But of course we have to forward the anti-gun universal background/registration/confiscation agenda in this article as well. Unbiased media sockpuppets...
how about jailing the idiots who put this one back on the streets ? If they knew who he was tracking then they should prove his affiliation with neo-nazi group,or STFU !! Media just stirring the pot. where are stories about Blountville tn.high school assailant shot dead by deputies, or home invasion in Mich, spoiled by ar-15, dont see these, These stories dont fit their anti-gun agenda. Want to bet Liberal Democrat Lawyers let this guy out? If there is no doubt,someone commits murder, HANG THEM. but no ACLU would cry foul. Prison are full of these scumbags who live better than us, at our expense, HANG THEM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No doubt that he is a card carrying NRA member and Republican Teabagger. The most disgusting human beings are magnetically drawn toward the GOP. Fear, paranoia and small minded thinking tend to do that, like attracts like.
That would make sense if he wasnt claiming to be a neo-nazi. Thats the far left, not the far right. Take some responsibility from the nuts on your side of the aisle.
feds also say Eric Holder and fast and furious, wasnt wrong!! It was a study!!
Neo-Nazis of America = friends/partners of the NRA!
"They deserve a vote. Gabby Giffords deserves a vote. The families of Newtown deserve a vote."
President Obama at the State of Union
President Obama said it best: All those people affected by gun violence -- the victims, the families, the communities -- they deserve a vote.
We owe it to them. If you agree with President Obama, then sign your name right now.
They deserve a vote: http://www.dccc.org/Feb13-nm">Tell Boehner and House Republicans to take action to reduce gun violence.
The most extreme of right-wing nut jobs, this Neo-Nazi gun nut, is exposed and apprehended and scores of NRA propaganda swallowing gun-culture nutjobs are here on this site defending his right to buy and have guns!
Listen to yourselves!
@ Bob in Boston... it's b/c they're just a bunch of whiney, chicken-sh!t, paranoid gun-goobers, living in some sort of drunken fear-- invented so they can continue to be PIMPED as gun-whore$ & pro$titute$ for the NRA.
Notice the physical resemblance between NRA gun-goober Wayne LaPierre and Adolf Hitler? Same comb-over hair, face w/o the 'stache, hand movements, rantings, crummy business suits?
Let these gun-goobers whine. It's what they do.
Bob, the laws have been the same years and years. NO Felon can own a gun.....check it out. You are the one that sounds more like the nutjob. This guy should not have any guns....do you understand the laws here? He got themj Illegally, he owned them Illegally, he bought the ammo Illegally. HE's A CRIMINAL,,that's what they do and that's why ALL of the law abidding people in this country hacve to own some form of protection. If the police are not here to protect me...I must protect myself and my family from criminals like this guy. It's not the job of the police to protect me....it's my job. There job is to arrest criminals after they kill or rape or burglarize my home. The courts have sadi this many times now.....it's not their job to protect me at all. And I think if the police feel they need a weapon to protect themselves...so do I.
Private sale: Buying from a criminal on the street. That's what that really means, but they won't tell you that when they say 80% of those convicted of gun crimes get their guns from gun shows or private sales. And, there is NOTHING that you can do to stop two criminally minded persons from behaving as criminals. All a registration database would do is make it easier for the federal government to confiscate lawfully owned firearms from law-abiding citizens at some point in the point in the future.
There are two ways to close the so-called gun-show loophole without infringing upon the rights of the law-abiding citizens. AND there is a way to decrease the number of stolen firearms that make it onto the streets for criminals and thugs to purchase from other criminals and thugs. NEITHER OF THESE THREE STRATEGIES ARE BEING DISGUSSED OR PUSHED.
AND THAT RAISES MY SUSPICIONS ON the Democrat's real intent.
@ Greatdebater1...
Fact: A gun in the home is 43 times more likely to kill a relative, friend, or neighbor before it kills an intruder or burglar!
Straw purchases in the suburbs of urban areas or at gun shows are not immune to criminals buying or procurring "lost", "stolen" or making an illegal gun purchase from a legal gun owner, who wants to make a sale.
Too many of the idiotic gun-goobers always leave those facts outta their conversations. Why?
neo-nazi kills 1,wounds 2 others,goes to prison,gets out,opens a sporting goods store amasses countless weapons and ammo,then fbi busts him ,saves the day ? Man,this story REEKS of Anti 2A-Propaganda.
"likely acquired them at gun shows or through private sales -- where under federal law no background checks are required".
I sick of hearing this lie repeated by news agencies over and over again, Firearm transactions at gun shows are required to follow the SAME laws and background checks just like you do at a gun shop. It's the people that show up in the parking lots of gunshows that make the private sales that has created the myth that gun shows are exempt from background checks.
@ Seabee267...
Same crap happens in the 'burbs of Chicago-- loaded with folks and money to by "lost and misplaced" weapons-- for sale.
Straw purchases of guns are one of the criminals and the NRA's best friends! Of course, the gun-goobers will say different! Gotta keep their gun-maker $ugardaddie$ happy, while hiding their dirt behind the 2nd Amend.
A lost or misplaced weapon would be reported as such. I don't want the cops showing up to arrest me because my gun was picked up in a crime. Any gun is worth money, As personal property, it should be insured. To get the insuranse company to pay for the loss, you need a police report. To get the police report, you must report it as lost or stolen. A few reports like that and some one will put 2 and 2 together. Then guess what, you get an all expences paid stay in the state pen. Or perhaps in the federal country club.
So give him his guns back and let him get to work.
Careful, you may be on his list.
Vince-545056
Gallup continually surveys american adults by region in the US, in 2011 it varied from 56% in the south to 36% in the east for a 47% average....
the point is.... only 2% of gun owners are NRA fringe guys saying NO to any kind of gun regulation.... and a huge block of Americans own guns but are not fringe idiots...
when you do those rants, you look like a retard.... you don't understand the issues, the reality of gun ownership, the politics, the use of them, how criminals use them.... you clearly don't understand the issue at all.
reality is: humans are violent.... we've been making weapons for 3 million years... and you can't just sit down, love everyone and have violence disappear by having a weapons ban...
if there is a weapons ban here in the US, with our culture... the 600% increase in armed robberies in homes that happened in Australia will look like a picnic
These are the nuts who will continue to buy guns and ammo at gun shows. Guns are the American weapons of mass destruction. Americans killed by nuclear - 0, chemical - 0, biological - 0, guns - 30,000 die EVERY YEAR. What an insane gun-hugging society we have become.
"Dettelbach, who is overseeing the case, said that federal agents have been unable to determine how and where Schmidt obtained his weapons, prompting officials to conclude he likely acquired them at gun shows or through private sales -- where under federal law no background checks are required. . " This is a quote from the article you supposedly read. They CANNOT say where he obtained his weapons. But, listen to the sheep repeating the anti-gun mantra.
It's idiots like this one that Wayne LaPierre says must be allpowed to own and carry any amount of guns and any type of guns. The NRA is in the business of providing guns to crooks, idiots and terrorists. The only reason they are so adamant about everybody having any guns they please is that they are the ones selling these man, woman and baby killer weapons to the killers. LaPierre and his henchmen should be tried for abetting murder.
Wayne LaPierre is just as much against the criminals having guns as anyone else. It's morons like you that give all the real Americans a bad name. Study the law and not read all the Obama bull! You see a gun and wet yourself becasue you have no idea what it is are care to. I'm one of the millions of military men and women that have protected your right to be the moron you are today! 28 years of doing something you can't understand.
This is a prime example of whats broken, and how criminals go around barriers using loop holes. You cant have holes.
I'll say that again. YOU CANT HAVE HOLES!
Loopy ones or otherwise., But especially the loopy ones.
More lies and wrong/misinformation by MSN and mainstream news media!! A friend and I went to a gun show in Venice,Fl. this past Saturday where my friend bought a Remington 870 knocjoff,manufactured in China. He had to fill out a Federal background check form and pass it before the seller would even accept the $250.00 cash.
Hmmmm, Just a thought! You might check the e-mails of Eric Holder, you might find out how this guy got the guns. They had to stop that whole Mexican drug cartel thing so they have to do something else till they get the drones all up and running!
The mentality of a republican, ZIEG HEIL