Militia member 'filled with rage,' plotted ambush

The Grand Rapids Press ^ | Friday, October 17, 2003 | Ed White

[FourPeas]

Militia member 'filled with rage,' plotted ambush

Friday, October 17, 2003

By Ed White
The Grand Rapids Press

It was a rural arsenal fit for war.

After the peaceful arrest of a Cadillac-area man, authorities who searched his 40-acre compound discovered a stunning collection of firepower, including an anti-aircraft gun capable of firing 550 rounds per minute up to four miles away.

A van and a Jeep Cherokee, described by the suspect as his "war wagons," had machine guns inside, with one "locked, loaded and ready to go," Assistant U.S. Attorney Lloyd Meyer said.

Agents found an underground bunker, thousands of rounds of ammunition, hundreds of pounds of gunpowder and manuals on guerrilla warfare, "booby traps" and explosives.

There were chilling pictures of President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with the cross-hairs of a high-

see MILITIA, A4

powered rifle scope drawn over them, Meyer said.

Norman Somerville, 43, was arrested last week on federal gun and drug charges as he shopped at Home Depot in Cadillac. Authorities then spent the weekend combing his property in Wexford County's Antioch Township, about 20 miles northwest of Cadillac.

Details of the search were disclosed in a court document filed Thursday in federal court in Grand Rapids, four days before a judge will decide whether Somerville should remain in jail while his case is pending.

Somerville was "filled with rage and intended to ambush people, mowing them down in a hail of machine-gun bullets," Meyer said, quoting informants. He belongs to a "self-styled radical militia unit" whose members are upset over the death of Scott Woodring, the prosecutor said.

Woodring was the Newaygo County man fatally shot by state police during the summer, days after a trooper died while trying to serve him with an arrest warrant.

State police were told in September that Somerville wanted to cause a car accident, then "ambush and kill" any responding officers with a machine gun mounted in his Jeep, Meyer wrote in the court document.

An unidentified source, described as one of Somerville's "trusted associates," feared he had become "mentally unbalanced and would kill an innocent person or be killed," Meyer said.

Somerville may face additional charges linked to the search of his property, although Meyer declined to elaborate.

Two years ago, Somerville moved to Wexford County from elsewhere in northern Michigan. He served in the Army from 1978 to 1984 and was trained as an intelligence analyst assigned to the elite Special Forces.

During a brief court appearance last week in Grand Rapids, Somerville said: "The people will have their day. ... There's a quiet civil war going on in the country."

In Antioch Township, five miles outside Mesick, neighbors said he is not the type to share a cup of sugar.

"We told our kids to stay off his property. There was gunfire a lot," said Lynda Sherburne, a former township clerk who lives nearby. "Who knows where the stray bullets are going.

"He got angry very easily. No contact with him was the best contact."

Sherburne said her nephew's house shook as state and federal authorities detonated explosives found on Somerville's property.

"I don't think anyone realized he was stockpiling back there," she said.

[hattend]

You can get ball ammo for as little as $1.25/round.

I stand corrected...I just checked at cascade ammo. 1.77 a shot plus shipping.

Wonder where I saw the price I was thinking and what was it for....oh well, senior moment.

[quidnunc]

The 'superpatriot' militia mopes are dead-set against the federal government, which they characterize as ZOG.

A few days after 9/11 the webmaster of one of the militia web sites opined that while he wouldn't want one of the Muslim jihadists to marry his sister, anybode that could deal such a blow to the federal government was basically OK in his book.

[GluteusMax]

"There's only one way in and one way out and he did have a gun mounted outside, ready to shoot," Goddard said. "We decided that we were going to wait, be patient, not expose our people to danger."

It seems they have learned from Waco after all. Why storm in with helicopter gunships and BATF in horse trailers when you can just arrest the guy at the local Home Depot. DUH. (Of course, since this guy was obviously prepped for a confrontation, unlike the church in Texas, maybe that's why they took a different approach to arresting him.)

[PhilipFreneau]

>> I wonder if the 2nd Amendment had anti-aircraft weapons in mind?

The 2nd Amendment covers any weapon you need them to fight against a tyrannical government.

[from occupied ga]

I've seen SLAP ammo for $7.50 a round, and much to my regret didn't buy any. Now I can't find any.

[quidnunc]

Catspaw wrote: (Somerville was being investigated by Secret Service agents "who had information that Mr. Somerville had stated over a ham radio that he was going to dispatch assassination teams to target President Bush," it said.) Talk about drawing attention to yourself.

I used to listen to these crackpots on my SW monitor.

They have something they call the Liberty Net on SW sideband and they have a moderator acting as a traffic controller who keeps a log so that everybody on the net gets to talk in their turn.

The New American is their Bible and they think that talk radio guys like Rush Limbaugh are NWO agents provocateurs.

I have lost the frequency where they broadcast so I haven't listened for a while.

[FourPeas]

Those guys on SW are a hoot. It's fascinating to listen to their view of the world.

[ArrogantBustard]

.50BMG target ammo can be extremely expensive. The prices you originally quoted are in the right ballpark for that stuff.

[quidnunc]

FourPeas wrote: Those guys on SW are a hoot. It's fascinating to listen to their view of the world.

There is — or at least was — a short-wave commertial station, WWCR, in Tennessee which sold time to these paranoids.

Mark from Michigan used to do a half-hour weekly program there.

[archy]

Uh-oh! This should be an interesting thread, for sure.

I wonder if the 2nd Amendment had anti-aircraft weapons in mind?

The closest thing of the sort available in the times the founding fathers were drafting the document was horse-drawn tube artillery. One reason that those assembled gentlemen were gathered to write a foundation for the governing system for their new country was that one of their contempories, a portly fellow named Henry Knox, was a dedicated and talented enthusiust and collector of such ordnance and had self-taught himself how to use it, becoming the American colonial rebels' first artillerist. I wonder what sort of equipment he'd be gathering around his plantation nowadays....

[Gringo1]

Leftist militia?

[Billthedrill]

I wonder if the 2nd Amendment had anti-aircraft weapons in mind?

Well, nobody has made a legal call yet as to what constitutes "arms" and what does not. Most people in the firearms legislation biz have come to consider the text "keep and bear arms" to refer to arms that can be borne, i.e. carried. But that is nowhere written down (at least as far as I know) and is purely a working classification.

By that guidance this "antiaircraft" weapon is borderline, even as it's a borderline AA weapon. This particular firearm may currently be possessed quite legally in many states with the correct federal ticket (Title II). Unfortunately my state (Washington) isn't one of those.

There's an awful lot of hearsay in the article - I'm sure some (liberal) neighbors of mine would consider me a right-wing gun-toting camo-wearing militia "type" although the camo is an oil-spattered t-shirt and the last militia I was in was the U.S. Navy. But the thing with the cross-hairs on the political figures is at least disturbing. The guy may well be a nut, but it's best not to try to make that judgment from a newspaper article.

BTW, too bad about not getting to fire a real AA weapon. I was lucky enough to get to shoot a string at a towed target with a 5"38 naval rifle. One tends to think about firearms in a whole different light after that experience...

[Catspaw]

Mark from Michigan used to do a half-hour weekly program there.

I haven't thought about him in a while. I wonder when his release date is?

[jmc813]

Because there are whackjob constimatooshinalists out there who ould start wigging out and downing planes in some psychotic rage about flag fringe, the illuminati other some other hopeless stupidity.

Read the comments on this thread. The "AA gun" he had was apparently legal. Do you support the Assault Weapons Ban and gun registration?

[Chancellor Palpatine]

I don't have a problem in the world with gun registration, and I can't say as I really care about the assault weapons ban one way or another.

[jmc813]

I don't have a problem in the world with gun registration

*groan*

Oh well, at least you admit it. Most grabbers dodge and squirm away from that question.

[RKV]

The Constitution does contemplate privately owned warships. See Article 8 Section 11 of the Constituion which grants congresional power to "grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal". A letter of marque is used by privately owned warships, which even in the 1700's would have had devastating firepower. That settles the issue for me quite easily. If you could own a frigate when the Constitution was signed then you can own something like this. If you screw up with it then you go to jail BTW.

[Publius6961]

What exactly is a "compound?" What makes it a "compound?"

The typical commie-loser-ignorant reporter's neuroses.

Next question?

[oldfart]

You do-- if you can afford them.

[Fierce Allegiance]

I think mama might get kinda pissed if i spent that much time in my lead-shielded workshop.

Besides, where can i go local to test them. I have 4 whiny daughters that won't last more than an hour with pullin the others hair out, so NYC is probably as far as i can go.