White Supremacist Felon Caught With 18 Guns, 45,000 Bullets And A List Of Black & Jewish Leaders

[BainsBane]

Federal agents were tracking Ohio resident Richard Schmidt’s imports of counterfeit sports jerseys when they stumbled upon his arsenal of 18 guns, more than 40,000 rounds of ammunition, and bulletproof body armor. Besides the arsenal, he had lists of Jewish and black leaders in Detroit, MI. He is also an ex-felon who killed a Hispanic man and wounded two others 24 years ago.

Yet before December, no one even noticed that Schmidt, 47, was amassing weapons illegally, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Instead, federal investigators zeroed in on his sports memorabilia shop around September 2011, tracking his shipments of knock-off jerseys from China for over a year before they discovered the cache of firearms.

Schmidt plead guilty to federal gun charges and the counterfeit racket last month, and will be sentenced in October. But many connected to the crime are still scratching their heads over how an ex-felon with ties to white supremacist groups was able to get his hands on so many guns.

“I can’t tell you how he got all those guns and ammunition,” U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach told the Plain Dealer. “It’s not that I won’t tell you; it’s that I can’t. This is somebody who should never have had one gun, one bullet. But he had an entire arsenal.”

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/08/30/2556291/neo-nazi-felon-stockpiling-guns/

[villager]

1. They arrested him for exercising his *2nd Amendment Rights!?*

Many here will be outraged.

[BainsBane]

2. If I had posted this in GD

I would be attacked for claiming all gun owners were White Supremacists. The gun nuts can't read a news article without assuming it's about them personally.

[villager]

3. that's how they rationalize their relentless snark, and attacks on everyone else

Then claim they are "rational" about gun policy....

[Hoyt]

4. Probably bought them off other gun "enthusiasts" and folks like Randy Weaver,

a martyr to the gun cultists.

Glad they got him.

[BainsBane]

5. or at a gun show or online

without being subject to a background check.

[Mr.Bill]

6. The gun nuts will cite this

as proof positive that the government is confiscating our guns.

[wild bird]

7. Glad they got this racist piece of shit before he was able to carry out his plan.

This is exactly why universal background checks are needed.

[alp227]

8. Original plain dealer article

Conviction of Toledo man for stockpiling weapons began with the tracking of camisoles

The paperwork said the mailed package contained $40 worth of women's camisoles. Someone in China sent it to a Toledo address.

Inside, there were no camisoles -- just low-quality, fake NFL jerseys with misspellings of players' names and poor quality stitching, records show. Federal agents had tracked the package and others like it to Richard Schmidt, a Toledo man who ran a sports memorabilia shop in Bowling Green.

But what began with investigators chasing box loads of counterfeit jerseys and baseball caps ended in one of the most perplexing seizures of weapons in Ohio: Authorities in December nabbed 18 guns that included assault rifles, more than 40,000 rounds of ammunition and body armor from Schmidt, a felon who killed a man and wounded two other people in 1989.

Investigators also found possible links to white supremacist groups. He had a VHS tape of a national meeting of the National Socialist Movement and stickers from the National Alliance, according to an inventory of seized items filed in U.S. District Court in Toledo. Agents also obtained notes with the names of Jewish and NAACP leaders in Detroit.

One page had the name of Scott Kaufman, the chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. He said he was stunned when federal agents showed up at his office.

[billh58]

9. He must have purchased

this arsenal legally, because we all know that there are no loopholes. In any event he is most likely just an innocent gun collector who is a supporter of improving race relations.

If necessary...