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
What would a liberal democrat like you know about "conservative?" If you think you're a conservative, you need to up your medication. Your viewpoint vis a vie firearms is dead on with the Democratic party/Sara Brady. Do you live in New York City? If not, you should. they all think just like you do there, and as evidence they elected upChuckie Schumer and Hitlery Clinton. Democrats are socialists/liberals, not conservatives.
Since you are (deludedly) claiming that "conservatives" want more gun control, and upChuckie Schumer, Fat Teddy Kennedy, Diane Feinslime all want more gun control, then by your bizarre "logic" they are all conservatives. I understand that you hate and fear guns, freedom and love big government. Many people do, but don't try and pass yourself off as a conservative because you ain't.
LOL. You are nothing of the sort unless Schumer, Feinstein, Kennedy, Waxman, Clinton, Rangel, McCarthy etc are also conservative Republicans. What you are is either a lying troll from DU or a totally self-deluded statist and to be pitied. On second thought you might be a Republican. There are hard left statist Republicans, McCain and Chaffee come to mind. But conservative? No way. Conservative my a$$.
I got a little history lesson fer ya, liberal. Until 1934 there were no restrictions of any sort on any arms that could be possessed by citizens of the US. The artificial concept of "destructive device" as something that the BATF uses for an excuse to harass citizens didn't come into effect until 1968. The 1994 semiauto ban is just 9 years old. So until relatively recently Americans did have the freedom to select weapons of all sorts. SO yes historically speaking and constitutionaly speaking, the second amendment means just what it says, and outside of NYC and the Peoples' Democracies of CA, RI, MA, NJ, IL and MD people do believe the Bill of Rights means what it says. (Except for you)
From the view of the Secret Service - no it doesn't make a difference.
And I really doubt that you can find a picture of any President (past or present), with cross hairs, that hasn't been pulled by a moderator.
I hadn't noticed your signature until now. I recommend you obtain spiritual help before we read something bad about you in the news.
Ah yes the sanctimonious hypocrisy of the left. I suggest you stop lying to the rest of us (and maybe yourself too for all I know) and come out of the closet and revel in your liberal communism. Or do you still contend that your identical beliefs to Schemer, Feinstein, Rangel, Waxman, Kennedy, Clinton, etc make you a "conservative republican" just like they are? You must think everyone else on this forum is pretty dumb if you think that we're going to believe that someone (that would be you) who has stated his belief in the Democratic party platform is a "conservative republican".
That had to have been the Soviet air force. I would recommend that you get help, but there isn't any know cure for your condition. Just keep reading and believing the "conservative republican" editorial pages of the Washington Post and the LA Times. You echo their sentiments.
Fortunately the vast majority of the American people, as well as the Armed Forces do not agree with you. I hope you find a way to mitigate the madness you are proposing without hurting others. Does your church share your view that WMDs are for any citizen who wants them ?
Thank the Klan back in the 1920's for that law.
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