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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.
More from Open Channel:
- Expert: US in cyberwar arms race with China, Russia
- Lights, cameras, reaction: Resistance builds to red-light cameras
- Suburban Chicago cops allowed to work 'half drunk,' investigation shows
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DETROIT is a catastrophe.
Yep, and ruled by good Democrats since Moses was a pup. Gotta feel for the good folks of my birthplace and hometown who keep electing Mayors and City Council persons who keep going to jail...
It's a perfect picture of where we're headed under Axelrod's brainchild Frankenstein.
People who belong to the Neo Nazis are an affront to those who fought in World War II.It makes me ill just to look at this thug.
well one thing, they are not building coffins and buying DHS 7000 ar-15's and mil. rounds of hollow points like your president is doing, the coffins are the good kind, put in a couple bodies and set it on fire instead of digging a hole and pushing the dead in with a dozer. hey at least he buried us.
Michael,I didn't vote for Obama.I'm a Republican.My Dad killed Nazi's in Italy during World War II.I wouldn't wipe my behind on these Neo Nazi's.Neo Nazi's are a disgrace to this country and comparing them to our military is insulting..
Its goons like this that just ruins it for the rest of us.
Nope. No reason for Gun Law reform.
Baaahahahahahahahaha, you NRA Conservative whack jobs.
None of you deserve respect.
Eric
Fuk you this guy does not have the principles of the NRA hes a wack job that shouldnt be on the streets. we need tougher enforcement !
Proof laws don't work he was already charged on existing gun laws and our court let him out to continue to walk the streets. We need tuffer judges to enforce the laws we have first then look at new laws otherwise its futile.
Again Doc, I can only agree. Unfortunately our society generates sociopaths faster than we
can build prisons. Got a cure for that?
Nice ride BTW. What year?
doc1255,I agree with you.Neo Nazi's are a terrorist organization and should be dealt with as such.
Just another RWNJ and likely Tea Party supporter. Cut him loose at midnight in Detroit wearing his Brown Shirt and Klan hoodie. See how far he gets.
It was obviously a liberal judge that let him out on bail on his existing charges. this peice of @!$%# doesn't represent any party but the Nazis we lost to much blood in that war My dad faught D-day and the battle of the Buldge.
he got those weapons the same way the Mexican cartel got theirs, obama and holder style. arm trafficking.never had as many killings like this before obama got in office and holder, except for the towers. i think janet reno was her name in the waco killings of women and baby's, like 116 got killed, she headed the FBI. can't trust the government i guess.
So first its Mexicans and their drugs, then the Chinese and their spying ways...now its the Neo Nazi's....what next , Dairy Farmers against Children?? watch out what happens to that milk......Yes, MCcarthyism is on a comeback people....if you dont know Wiki Mccarthyism and....oh my goodness...that person who moved in across the street...hes carrying a gun, hes wearing some kind of militia uniform...on his hat says some code . P.O.L.I.C.E. i knew it, some new cult...I better start taking notes on them.
hey tehrani , your wife is ...
Must be those Ethiopian Jews.
America never gets Neo Nazi attacks! I don't think he was really going to do one. He might of planned to but he failed and must have wanted to. Most Nazi behavior is gang related and things like that, not much of people killing politicians and community leaders.
i used to be a car dealer
sell cars and every car i sold i had to keep the paper work on that car, that i sold, i had copies of every car i sold, even if i gave them a 30 day tag, ,
gun dealers i would think they would have to make copies of every thing they sell and then it is sent in to the state or where ever they send the paper work, to ,
so i cant believe this news, sorry,
is there a gun dealer here to say what they have to do,
must likly this guy got his gun off the street ,,
next time im in town ill ask a pawn shop , gun dealer,
Dealers have to transfer guns on a form 4473 and call it into the state (in some states) or Feds. The Fed system is called NICS. 4473's are to be kept for 20 years, or if you get rid of the license they are to be sent to BATFE. BATFE inspectors come by every once in a while to do a compliance inspection and look at all of your paperwork.
So yeah, if this guy was already convicted of gun crimes, there is no way he would pass a background check, so he likely bought the guns from a private seller.
With as many of these right wingers as are openly organizing for a civil war, and stating that they are openly in public, especially online, one must wonder if he was merely (as Chief Justice Vinson said in Dennis v United States (1951)) merely "Awaiting the signal".
Jimmy
He had a different cause than us right wingers . You see he hates Blacks and Jews We simply want to drfend freedom. for all Americans or party affiliation and regardless of there color or religion . Did I break it down simple nough fer ya.
Doc, you're ON TARGET!
It's a bird.....it's a plane....it's Super Nazi!
Defender of peace, justice, and ahem...the American way!
Yafitgay
This is all you got. I bet you failed debate in high school.
Given your maturity level, I'm guessing you're still in high school. Before you leave, try learning about the word: satire.
Once again, Hitler's party was called The National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP). The NAZIs and Communists were COMPETITORS for the same totalitarian power they both sought. A linear spectrum from Fascist to Communist doesn't really capture what's going on here. It may have even been a propaganda ploy by either side to distance themselves from what is essentially the flip-side of the same coin--coercive totalitarian government power "in the name of the people" or "for the good of the people..."
Prez O's campaign slogan "Forward"? Anyone remember Rachel Maddow lamenting on MSNBC over the ethics of yanking the Wikipedia article on the German Socialist publications whose propaganda
mastheads had the party slogan of "Vorwarts!" or Forward? I got a copy of it before the Leftist propagandist editors of Wikipedia-land took it down. Gotta hide the truth, because the truth leads back to the Marxist German Socialist origins of the current leadership of the Demmunist party. Socialism vs. Fascism is a false dichotomy.
Never stop questioning, never accept "the party line" from anyone...
Davey, and Americans wonder why other countries laugh at their education system and well... them in general. That goes for you too Doc. I'm sitting here trying not to laugh too hard at your failed attempts to understand history, politics, reform, reasoning and well... everything because I don't want to wake up my kids.
omfg, guns is so easy to get hat all them stupid gun laws do nothing to help te people, All guns laws is used for is to employ the retards that want to ruin another mans life for no reason but that they act like they are god and wanting to judge people with their stupid laws. What happens when it is time for the real go to judge those that fck with others because of their lie of laws that god won't even back up. The black market is also how many people survive in this world, a world based on the greed of money. Should we thank all of the stupid gov't mother fckers that made our world turn out like that. I would rather put a boot up their asses so far that the sun won't shine on it.
LOL Frank, you are at least a half intelligent LIBERAL. Nazi stands for national SOCIALIST party, they were liberal socialists just not communist. The Japanese were far right.
He's obviously smarter than you, udelose, as the German Nazi's biggest domestic competitor before they took over the government was the Social Democratic Party of Germany (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, or SPD), otherwise known as the liberal socialists you claim the Nazis were. The Nazi Party itself was founded from the radical anti-communist right wing of Germany including its Freikorps.
Why don't you look up stuff you don't know instead of talking out of your azz next time.
Yafitgasy
Yea its going to be hard to compete with narrow mindness. But yu iz more literate than I iz dats fer sher.
Take your meds troll.
Got em right here YAK
I hear a train a comin
Comin round that bend
Oh lord..I'll be packin my AR15 again
I'll be shooting,tooting,wooting
Until the time I die
But my baby AR15 is always by my side
Sir, I don't think those are the Johnny Cash lyrics...
Proud member of the NRA.
"Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what can you do for your country."
Protect it by any means!
JFK- 1961
JFK's inaugural was classic Americana. Great to review and READ IT to your friends. It is totally unrecognizeable to the current Demmunist party. JFK couldn't win a primary as a Democrat today...
Your mind is as stupid as your post!
Your a republican no doubt!
Perfect fit.
Guys, another bigger picture is being missed here. I certainly don't know the guy in the picture. His notebook with apparent surveillance of potential targets, if true, is certainly VERY CREEPY. There is no defense or justification for this predatory behavior. This is not a dude I'd want walking around my neighborhood.
As I've stated before, I've had bosses, subordinates and colleagues of just about any racial or ethnic demographic you can come up with. I have neighbors from Pakistan, the Phillipines, and the inner city. Our
community does just fine. I'm good with that.
I guess my point would be, our society, still majority white, has many types of people in it. Not all of us want to be ruled by an urban coalition of people who do not see the world the same way we do. The harder the agendas of Saul Alinsky and Jeremiah Wright get pushed, the harder some folks will push back. I do not own any weapons, nor do I particularly want any at this point. But I do understand the frustration of many who feel increasingly beseiged. Many of us feel our country, where our flag and traditions are honored, is being eroded
or flat-out stolen by those whose narrative seems like an alternate reality from what we grew up with. The election victory engineered by Axelrod and his halleluiah chorus in the NYC and DC-based news media seems a fraud and a sham foisted upon us by those who are expert in manipulating the gullible to their own ends.
Beware of those who feel a race war is necessary, or that "Organize for Action" (an amazingly tax-exempt partisan political organization) is somehow a legitimate way to wipe out any remaining opposition to the Marxist subjugation of America. The Left is better at grass-roots organization, but the harder they push, the harder others will push back. I DON'T want the country I love and have defended for 22 years to look like Northern Ireland during "The Troubles" of a previous decade. DON'T go there, none of us, of any ethnicity or political stripe, will enjoy the result...
Davey
if they would have kept him in jail the first time we would not be having this conversation we had him and let him go. Stronger enforcement of existing laws not more laws.
If you want a glimpse of what this might look like, read Robert Gleason's "End of Days" [Macmillan, 2011]. It ain't pretty.
Doc, I can only agree. Unfortunately our society generates sociopaths faster than we can build prisons. Got a cure for that?
I'm from Phoenix AZ and Sherriff joe doesn't go for over crowding he erects more tents puts em in pink underware, has roadside chain gangs and he puts a neon sign in front of tent city that says VACANCY. He also feeds his prisoners green baloney . he has very few return customers and a high rate of rehabilatation.
Gotta love Joe Arpaio.
How are the family and friends of Sherriff DEVER doing? It STILL creeps me out that someone followed him to make sure there were "no signs of life" after his vehicle rolled in the desert enroute to a weekend with his son. Anybody objective seen his autopsy findings? Smells like a good old-fashioned HIT to me. Got too uppity for someone in DC. Same with Andrew Breitbart. Could have reversed the election if the TRUTH had gotten past the MARXIST filter of the NYC press...
Why is anybody surprised? This is just another looney on a long list of King LaPierre's buds whose gun rights Wayne-baby is trying to protect. And Wayne swears these are law-abiding, upstanding citizens - right!!!
Sorry that shoe doesn't fit
I think it is out of our hands, events and history are made on the graveyard of miscalculations, it will happen no matter what we wish.
And this guy will be out in 5 to 7 years. I mean the time he did for killing someone.....wow. He is definitely a POS and is off the street. Thank you for that. What he and other Nazi sympathizers don't realize is Hitler would of had him shot for his antics. Heil Hitler? What a idiot. Deport him to the gulags....Or put him in Angola and let him spend sometime with big ole Bubba. Ream him out real good.....Douche bag POS. There, I'm done....
Hope you feel better, Mahatma...
Ironic that that maniac is wearing a Superman Tshirt. Superman was created by Siegel and Shuster, two Jewish men.
Ironic indeed. A Jewish buddy of mine has a call-sign of "Superman" because he LOOKS like the original.
Wondering how the conversation between the Jewish adherents of MARX and the Jewish adherents of the Constitution and actual American history will work out. Aaron Sorkin vs. David Mamet. Blitzer vs. Krauthammer. Bill Maher vs. Mark Levin. Truth can always be overrun by bluster and B.S. Hope the truth is VERY CAREFUL.
William F. Buckley's "God and Man at Yale" codified the parallel battles between Marxism vs. Capitalism and Atheism vs. Christianity that pretty much foretold the unfolding of the last half of the 20th Century.
It has been said “salvation is from the Jews.” Norman Podhoretz, himself a Jewish gentleman, an early editor of the Weekly Standard, and contemporary of William F. Buckley, stated in his book “Why are Jews Liberals?” that Karl Marx was briefly a Jewish convert to Christianity. This was before Marx fell under the influence of Hegel, became an atheist, and founded his own political philosophy which has taken on many characteristics of a religion. The 20th Century documents the horrors which followed. 20-25 MILLION Russians killed by Stalin, 60-85 MILLION Chinese killed by Mao, the WH Communications Director's "favorite political philosopher." REALLY??? Wow...
America has needed to choose which Jewish Messiah it wishes to follow—Karl Marx or Jesus Christ. The choice appears to have been made as of November 6, 2012. Nice Job, America. Hope you like the "change..."
Liberal mindset not doing their job keeping tabs on a felon. Bureaucratic lunacy.
Now mainstream media pulls out the big guns. We've got white supremacists with caches of guns. Boy oh boy they must be really getting desperate to sell gun disarmament. You can bet that stricter laws will not stop Nazi sympathisers or any other racist group from getting guns illegally. The facts don't support that stricter gun laws or total gun bans reduce crime and help protect citizens. In fact the stats prove that stricter gun laws or total gun has just the opposite effect. Sometimes I wonder just how gullible mainstream media thinks US citizens are. LOL
You keep regurgitating the same bulls**t of the gun nuts. The thing is to keep track of the guns once they are bought and registered by a "law abiding citizen in the first place, and if they appear in the hands of lunatics like this one, no liberal for sure, then they can trace the gun to the person who sold it to him illegaly.
Is that soooooooo difficult to understand? Get educated and stop listening to criminal organizations like the NRA and Fox.
Um, doesn't Rasputin mean literally "the debauched one..." ??
Opposing viewpoints? Free speech? How repulsive, how criminal! The Fairness Doctrine is only “Fair” when slapped on traditional or conservative voices. So, Foxnewstalk brings unwelcome viewpoints and is
therefore banned from Sirius XM? Obviously Karl Marx knew better than those Evil White Male Founders what 1st Amendment meant.
So, therefore, Marxist Speech is protected under the First Amendment, but anything other than Marxist Speech is “hate speech” and therefore banned. Whether or not he said it, the following quote attributed
to Karl Marx is being applied with reckless abandon in Academia, the Press, Hollywood, and for the last half century public schools and the courts:
“If you can cut the people off from their history, then they can be more easily persuaded.” –Karl Marx. (Google “Libertarian Quotes”or www.lpboulder.org/quotes)
That is why Fox News, including Fox News Talk, is so HATED by the Left. Alternative viewpoints cannot be tolerated, especially if they are TRUE. If the people know the truth, they will rise up against the Marxist propaganda onslaught in evidence on MSNBC, the legacy media led by the WAPO and NYT, and
now Sirius XM.
Rasputin calling people crazy is a lazy childish way to try to win a debate. I have educated myself. Look at the stats for Australia after they gave up their guns. 6.5 % increase in murders 9.6% up in assaults and 44% increase in armed robberies. Look at Mexico after a ban gun. 55,000 dead in three years. Now look at he FBI stats crime has gone down in America by 40 percent and gun sales have gone up. I don't read anything coming out of the NRA and I don't watch FOX news and never have. You are making sweeping generalizations with no proof.
Now look at the history of countries that have given up guns. Disarming citizens eventually leads to powerful groups who try to sieze power and install a Totalitarian governing structure and if you know anything about the history of this type of government you know that in the twentieth and twenty first centuries hundreds of millions of civilians were murdered. Look at China Look at Russia Look at Europe's Fascists. All these governments disarmed their citizens. Then they used their military and police to control and murder their own citizens.
To think that it could not happen here is beyond naive it is dangerously childish.
Fight for Freedom,
According to Fact Check murders in Austrailia are at an all time low.
According to studies made by Austrailian Universities Team: So what have the Australian laws actually done for homicide and suicide rates? Howard cites a study (pdf) by Andrew Leigh of Australian National University and Christine Neill of Wilfrid Laurier University finding that the firearm homicide rate fell by 59 percent, and the firearm suicide rate fell by 65 percent, in the decade after the law was introduced, without a parallel increase in non-firearm homicides and suicides. That provides strong circumstantial evidence for the law’s effectiveness.
No one is trying to take weapons away from of as you said disarm citizens, but it is insane for us not to require back ground checks on all gun sales.
You are living in a "Red Dawn" dream world if you believe in todays modern world even an AR-15 assault weapon could protect you from a true totalitarian government who could hunt you down with drones.
I do see your concern however because as crazy as your rhetoric is you probably would find it hard to pass a mental background check to own a firearm.
WOLVERINES!
Your fact check is incorrect as to the crime numbers with the exception of suicides and mass murders by psyhologically imbalanced people. The gun ban did have an impact on this goup. Your attack on my mental state is another shabby childish and rude attempt to win the debate. Your red dawn remark is pathetic. You obviously have never studied history nor are you aware of world events. You spit in the face of our forefathers wisdom. Quite frankly you don't deserve to live in the US.
FFF. I'd say your fact checks are wrong. But hey what do I know? I live in a Socialist country called Canada that you probably believe your country protects (excuse me, I'm about to pee myself laughing at that thought) because you have no clue about the Non agression pacts signed by multiple countries.
Now you probably think that my country has issues because we have such lengthy means to get a gun in the first place and we can't own military grade weapons. But hey, at least if someone shoots us either accidentally or on purpose we can afford to go to the doctor and get it taken care of. We can also track the owner of the weapon because of our federal long rifle and hand gun registrations up here in Canada. This is all part of the purchasing process in our country.
Ug, I'm starting to not make sense because of how late it is here. Let me just put it in short form so you don't hurt yourself trying to understand it- National registration does not mean 'Take your guns away' It means that the cops can be made aware of guns being in a home in case they have to respond to a call or in case your gun is stolen.
Megan, well said. Unfortunately you are trying to teach a pig to sing as in you will only get frustrated and the pig (FFF) will just get annoyed.
FFF,
Your mental state is clearly in question by your posts as well as your lack of knowledge of history. When someone presents facts you simply disregard them and proceed with your babble about your distorted views of our founding fathers, like a true Tea Party affiliate. You are the reason we need background checks so crazy people like yourself cannot purchase or own fire arms.
Stay inside or the black helicoptersmay will get you.
Perhaps you can watch the new Red Dawn remake. Spoiler alert it is the North Koreans this time around.
lmao...