Tag: firearms
Hitler-Worshipping National Guardsman Jailed On Gun, Drug Charges

Hitler-Worshipping National Guardsman Jailed On Gun, Drug Charges

As the government continues to finally hold those who participated in the January 6 riots accountable, members of the armed forces who participated or acted on their interest in white nationalist propaganda are also facing the consequences. A former member of the National Guard has been sentenced in federal court for unlawfully possessing several firearms while also using illegal controlled substances, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced in a release Monday.

According to the press release, 22-year-old Norfolk resident Francis Harker was sentenced Monday to 4 years and nine months in connection to the charges dating back to 2020. Court documents note that, in 2020, Harker discussed “interrupting an unjust stop” by trapping law enforcement at a Virginia Beach shopping mall.

Following his discussion with an associate, he was able to get a semi-automatic rifle and falsely stated on the required purchase paperwork that he was not an unlawful user of any controlled substances, when in fact he used illegal drugs, including LSD.

According to investigators, the following year, he again made the same false statement when purchasing a handgun. When FBI officials found the illegal drugs and firearms in his home, they also found approximately 100 blank COVID-19 vaccination cards.


“Harker, who was a member of the National Guard, took the cards from the National Guard and mailed them to associates across the country,” the DOJ press release said.

Court documents also indicate that Harker’s social media and electronic devices contain information about not only inflicting violence on law enforcement but white supremacists and extremist ideology.

“He engaged in numerous other activities on the Internet involving violent, racially-motivated extremism, particularly focused against law enforcement officers,” prosecutors said, referring to Harker in a sentencing memo.

Images he posted included one with the phrase “Rape the Cops,” an image of himself doing a Hitler salute, and imagery stating, “there is no god but Hitler.”

According to the DOJ press release, Harker also admitted to interacting online with members of a group called “The Base,” which he described as a “group interested in terrorism.”

Additionally, in November, a magistrate judge found that Harker “traveled to Colorado to meet with the leader of a violent extremist group,” but that group is not named in court records, The Washington Post reported.

Local ABC News station 13 noted that the FBI began its investigation after hearing that Harker was sending messages over Instagram to share plans for violence and support racially-motivated violent extremism.

Harker isn’t the only individual affiliated with the armed forces who has been sentenced after being connected to white supremacist ideology.

According to The State, prosecutors are seeking 30 days in jail for Elliot Bishai, a member of the federally-supported Civil Air Patrol, the civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force. Bishai not only participated in the Jan. 6 rights but had more than 80 Nazi and white supremacist images on his cellphone, prosecutors said.

In addition to Nazi and white supremacist images, Bishai also had more than 400 videos made by an online personality, known as the “Gypsy Crusader,” who is described in court documents as a “far-right ... commentator, streamer, white supremacist and convicted felon” named Paul Nicholas Miller.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Maker Of Assault Rifle Used In Uvalde Massacre Featured Child In Bizarre Ad

Maker Of Assault Rifle Used In Uvalde Massacre Featured Child In Bizarre Ad

A Georgia gun manufacturer is facing scrutiny for its disturbing ad shared just days prior to the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

According to HuffPost, on May 16, Daniel Defense —a firearm company that manufactures AR-15-style semi-automatic rifles like the one Salvador Ramos, the 18-year-old shooter who fatally shot two teachers and 19 students— posted an image of a young child holding an assault rifle.

With the image, the gun manufacturer included Proverbs 3:5 which reads, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”


Since the deadly Uvalde, Texas massacre, the company's tweet is being seen in a different and less-favorable light. Although the company quickly changed its Twitter account status from public to private, screenshots of the tweet had already been screenshotted.

To make matters worse, HuffPost reports that the disturbing post was actually tweeted on Ramos' 18th birthday which, according to reports, is when he actually purchased his first firearms. In fact, Ramos is said to have purchased a Daniel Defense DDM4 V7 just days before opening fire in the school.

Daniel Defense has also boasted that the firearm is the “perfect rifle for everybody.” According to the police report on Ramos, the teen also purchased a second firearm which has been identified as a Smith & Wesson M&P 15. However, he only carried the assault rifle into the school.

In wake of the shooting and the recirculating Twitter post, Daniel Defense has come under fire for its tendency to develop firearm advertisements that have a connection to religion. Speaking to NBC News, Ryan Busse, a former firearms executive and gun violence prevention group advisor said, “This is how [company founder Marty Daniel] has grown his business: By being on the edge and wrapping this holy-roller thing around it.”

A spokesperson for Daniel Defense also said, “We believe this week is not the appropriate time to be promoting our products in Texas at the NRA meeting.”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

TSA Finds 20 Percent More Guns In Carry-On Bags In 2015, And Most Are Loaded

TSA Finds 20 Percent More Guns In Carry-On Bags In 2015, And Most Are Loaded

By Hugo Martin, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

Airport security screeners in the U.S. found a record high number of firearms in carry-on bags last year, and most of them were loaded, officials said.

The Transportation Security Administration said it found 2,653 firearms, 20 percent more than in 2014, and that 83 percent of them contained ammunition.

The agency suggested that the increase may be the result of better search techniques by airport screeners, although a moderate uptick in the number of travelers also may have contributed.

“The transport of firearms by commercial air in carry-on bags represents a threat to the safety and security of air travelers,” TSA Administrator Peter V. Neffenger said. “Through increased training in detection methods, our officers are becoming more adept at intercepting these prohibited items.”

Firearms were discovered in carry-ons at 236 airports last year, the TSA said. Those with the most were:

—Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, with 153 firearms found

—Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, with 144

—Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport, with 100

—Denver International Airport, with 90

—Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, with 73

All weapons, including guns, knives and ammunition, as well as inert bombs and realistic props made to look like firearms, are prohibited in carry-on bags on commercial planes.

Travelers who bring firearms to an airport checkpoint can face criminal charges and fines.

The TSA said it screened 708 million passengers in 2015, up about 6 percent from the previous year.

©2016 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Photo: A man walks past an exhibit booth for firearms manufacturer Sig Sauer at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Chicago, Illinois, October 26, 2015.     REUTERS/Jim Young 

Wal-Mart Workers On Pistol Patrol As Law Lets Texans Tote Guns

Wal-Mart Workers On Pistol Patrol As Law Lets Texans Tote Guns

By Lauren Etter and Shannon Pettypiece, Bloomberg News (TNS)

AUSTIN, Texas — Managers at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Texas have a new task to add to their list of duties: asking customers if they have a permit to carry a handgun.

To comply with state liquor rules, the world’s biggest retailer sent a written notice last month to stores that sell alcohol, telling managers to ensure that customers who openly carry firearms under a new law have licenses. Cashiers or door greeters who see someone with a gun are to alert the highest- ranking employee, who is to approach the customer and ask to see the paperwork.

“We do try to ensure that people have a licensed firearm,” said Wal-Mart spokesman Brian Nick. “We are giving direction to our store employees to ask for a license as our management sees appropriate.”

The notice was sent out in anticipation of the Lone Star State’s open-carry law, which went into effect Jan. 1. It made Texas the nation’s most populous state to allow citizens with a permit to carry handguns openly in a holster.

The measure has put retailers in a quandary, forcing them to take sides in one of the nation’s most fraught debates. Gun- rights activists are boycotting stores that forbid firearms, saying people shouldn’t be punished for exercising their rights. Gun-control advocates, meanwhile, are shunning stores that allow customers to bear arms, saying no one should have to shop where they feel unsafe.

Stuck in the middle are retailers loath to risk losing business from either side. Dozens of stores and restaurants across Texas, including San Antonio-based HEB Grocery Co., one of the state’s largest food retailers, have banned openly carried guns. That’s incurred the ire of activists who have vowed to shop elsewhere. Others, such as Cincinnati-based Kroger Co., have chosen not to ban firearms carried legally, inviting the scorn of gun-control advocates promising a boycott of their own.

Wal-Mart’s position is unusual because many of its stores sell beer and wine. That’s put the company in the cross-hairs of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, which prohibits unlicensed handguns in establishments that sell such products for off-premises consumption. An establishment can lose its liquor license if it “knowingly allows” a person to bring an illegal firearm on the premises, said Chris Porter, spokesman for the agency.

Previously a shopper could have been walking the aisles with a concealed weapon — legal in Texas for two decades — and store clerks wouldn’t have known. Under the new law, the only way to ensure compliance is to ask a customer with a gun for a permit.

“Now that it’s open carry, that creates a new space that you have to cover,” said George Kelemen, chief executive officer of the Texas Retailers Association. Stores like Wal-Mart want “to make absolutely sure that the message they convey is, ‘We welcome your patronage, but we sell alcohol and we don’t want to risk losing the ability to do that.”’

Some companies are trying to walk a fine line by publicly opposing guns in their Texas stores, while stopping short of posting state-issued signs that serve as a legal notice that firearms are prohibited. The coffee giant Starbucks Corp. has requested that customers who aren’t law-enforcement personnel refrain from bringing firearms of any kind into stores, but hasn’t issued a ban, according to spokeswoman Jaime Riley. Target Corp. has also asked customers not to carry guns openly, even though it hasn’t displayed the signs prohibiting the practice, said spokeswoman Molly Snyder.

That balancing act isn’t sitting well with gun-control advocates. The Texas chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America has begun targeting stores that have publicly opposed the open-carry law but haven’t displayed the official signs prohibiting it. The group is affiliated with Everytown for Gun Safety, a group backed by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg that advocates for stricter laws. The ex-mayor is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent company Bloomberg LP.

“The strongest statement businesses can make for their customers’ safety and care is getting that sign up,” said Alexandra Chasse, a spokeswoman for the Texas chapter of Moms Demand Action.

Wal-Mart, which itself sells rifles and shotguns, says it’s asking customers to show a pistol permit only in Texas stores that sell alcohol. When it comes to allowing guns in stores nationwide, the company says its policy is to follow all local, state and federal laws, said Nick.

Still, its stance has begun to trouble gun-rights activists as they walk into their local Supercenter with pistols on their hips.

“I find it offensive,” said C.J. Grisham, president of gun- rights group Open Carry Texas, who has heard from members who shop at Wal-Mart that they have been asked for permits. “I don’t want to be treated suspect by a place that I’m shopping at.”

(Etter reported from Austin and Pettypiece from New York)

©2016 Bloomberg News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Photo: Walmart via Wikimedia Commons