Posted on 10/17/2003 10:29:17 AM PDT by FourPeas
Militia member 'filled with rage,' plotted ambush Friday, October 17, 2003 By Ed White
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.
The Grand Rapids Press
Amen and amen! This was the founding father's intent as most of you well know. Not some finch-plinking notion that I can hunt to eat(though, this also false under basic human rights).
There are limits to every thing. Even the power of government supposedly. The problem stems from the fact that terms like "valid interest" and "arms" get defined by those who don't want to see the public they supposedly serve armed with so much as a peashooter, while they enjoy taxpayer-funded protection of a very high degree.
It's a fox-guarding-the-henhouse scenario, and the double standards espoused by the ruling elite do not inspire trust.
The Japanese Arisaka Type 99 bolt-action rifle of 1939 was fitted with anti-aircraft sights, which obviously qualify the rifle as an "anti-aircraft weapon." And every other bolt-action rifle in the world is 'functionally equivalent.'
I used to live in the Peoples Republic of Kalifornia. I know you don't mean to, but you remind me of Diane ("Mr. & Mrs. America, turn 'em all in!") Feinstein.
;>)
After that last ALCS game, there are a lot of Bostonians who might think NYC would be a good place to start.
Comes under the first amendment, same as burning flags. Some gun ranges won't let you shoot at pictures of people, the one I belong to sells them. :) Although they do chose more appropriate objects for their "lead commnetary", like Saddam, Osama, Muamar, etc.
No, but the letter of marque gives you the authority to use the cannon on your ships, the second amendment protects your right to keep them. Cannon were a "long lead time" piece of equipment, as were the ships to mount them on, although the latter not quite so much so.
Do you have the means to buy one? Even the Russian surplus ones come pretty steep, and are of more than questionable reliability.
Down with kooks and kookery!
None fall into any category likely to be affected by any bans.
If any of them have, or can accept, scopes, they'll soon be "sniper rifles" and that big old Sharps can transmorgify into a "cannon" when reported by the likes of this "reporter". If they can say that anything over .50 has "no sporting purpose" why not .40? And then there goes your Sharps.
OK.
So you're saying that there's a 2nd Amendment right to high-yield strategic nuclear weapons?
I don't think those can be reasonably used in self-defense in a manner that doesn't violate the right of others to the quiet enjoyment of their liberty and property...
They cost less than a top-end Ferrari.
OK: please detail how to use one in legitimate case of self-defense or the defense of others from imminent harm...
...that does NOT massively violate the right of others to the quiet enjoyment of their liberty and property.
Yourself and MurryMom?
The anti-America and anti-self-governance rants wouldn't change much at all.
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