ALERT!! CALL THE NRA!!! We need to protect this armed citizen's Sacred Second Amendment right to bear arms -- grenades, grenade launchers, machine guns
- From: "Kickin' Ass and Takin' Names" <old_redneck@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2009 18:08:11 -0700 (PDT)
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/mar/22/heavily-armed-doctor-lives-near-power-plant/
Heavily armed doctor lives near power plant
By Cindy Wolff (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Travelers take off their shoes to walk through metal detectors at
airports.
Surveillance cameras at the Real Time Crime Center in Memphis watch
over the Mississippi River bridges like high-tech hawks on the lookout
for terrorists in the name of Homeland Security.
But less than a half-mile from an Arkansas nuclear power plant, a
search yielded a cache of grenades, launchers, and fully automatic
machine guns worth more than $1 million. They were found at the home
of a former Germantown doctor who was questioned as a suspect in the
Feb. 4 bombing of West Memphis resident Dr. Trent Pierce.
The proximity of the weapons to the facility has left some outraged
and feeling vulnerable.
ATF officials found 98 grenades and 110 fully-automatic guns at the
home of Dr. Randeep Mann on Milky Way Lane, which is about a half-mile
from a nuclear power plant in London, Ark. This satellite image shows
the home of Dr. Mann in the lower left corner (marked by an "A" flag)
and the power plant on the upper right.
Dr. Randeep Mann, along with other doctors who faced discipline
by the Arkansas State Medical Board, which Pierce chairs, were
questioned by federal and state agents the day a bomb exploded in
Pierce's driveway, leaving him in critical condition.
A month later, law enforcement was back at Mann's home after a city
worker tripped over a canister filled with grenades in the woods about
875 feet from Mann's home.
Inside his car and home, state troopers and agents with the U.S.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found 110 fully
automated machine guns, $50,000 in cash, and grenade launchers, along
with the 98 grenades from the day before.
Mann, a Russellville internist who practiced in Tennessee and lived in
Germantown for years, is also a federally licensed arms dealer. He and
his father have made more than 300 trips in and out of the country
since 2007, according to testimony by ATF agent David Oliver at a
hearing to determine whether to detain Mann. He's being held in
federal custody in Little Rock without bond.
Mann faces weapons charges on four of the 110 machine guns, which
weren't registered to him.
Also, federal law prohibits anyone other than military personnel from
owning the type of highly explosive grenades that were found.
It's not against the law to own licensed weapons near a nuclear power
plant, said Mann's attorney Blake Hendrix.
A spokesman for Homeland Security referred questions to the ATF. The
ATF said that everyone is still a suspect in the Pierce bombing, since
no one has been arrested yet. The agency is concerned with the
unlicensed weapons but not their proximity to the nuclear plant, said
spokesman Austin Banks.
Nuclear plants were deemed potential terrorist targets after the Sept.
11 attacks.
Bartlett resident Tom Barker, a mechanical engineer who worked on the
nuclear power plant known as Arkansas Unit 1 in the 1970s, is outraged
that weapons found at Mann's are that close to a facility.
"Neighbors said they heard him popping off a machine gun in the lake,"
Barker said. "Guess they wouldn't think anything of it if they heard
machine gun fire coming from that direction again some day."
Anti-nuclear energy groups have said for years that an attack on a
plant could devastate the country.
Nuclear power plants are among the most heavily protected facilities
in the country, said Victor Dricks, spokesman for the regional
commission office of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in
Arlington.
"In addition to their robust design, the plants are surrounded by
physical barriers, armed guards, intrusion detection systems and
surveillance systems, as well as access controls and strict access
authorization requirements for plant workers," Dricks said.
"All those measures are periodically tested, in exercises designed to
simulate a terrorist attack. The NRC has confidence in Arkansas 1
defending itself in a terrorist attack."
But others aren't so sure.
"I'm seriously concerned that weapons of that size are near a nuclear
power plant," said Paul Gunter of , a public advocacy group opposed to
nuclear power.
"These things are a target for terrorists," Gunter said. "No one knows
if they can withstand an airplane attack like what happened on Sept.
11, but those weapons you mentioned can sure be used against the
humans working at the plant. Terrorists got control of airplanes with
box cutters."
Hendrix, Mann's lawyer, said his client's proximity to the plant has
more to do with the beauty of Lake Dardanelle than it does the plant.
"It's very picturesque and beautiful there," he said. "It's a
desirable place to live."
Mann held a license to practice medicine in Tennessee from 1992 to
2000. He sold his Germantown home in 2003 for $377,000.
He's held medical licenses in Massachusetts, Alabama, Missouri,
Maryland and Iowa. None of those states shows any complaints against
him. But Mann had several run-ins with the licensing board for
violating Arkansas laws concerning prescriptions.
He filed several lawsuits against the board after it took away his
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) license to prescribe narcotics.
He regained, then lost his license again after the board found he'd
overprescribed pain killers to patients. Ten of his patients died of
drug overdoses. The board allowed him to keep his medical license. A
year later he reapplied for his DEA license to prescribe narcotics.
At that hearing, Pierce, who most people describe as genteel and soft-
spoken, had stern words for Mann.
"I cannot imagine that you should re-present before this board in any
foreseeable time frame to ask for our permission to get a DEA, because
you don't need one, doctor," Pierce said.
Mann argued that he was unable to get on some insurance plans as a
provider since he lost his DEA license.
"Now it is unfortunate that you cannot get in insurance plans because
you don't have a DEA," Pierce said, "but that is of your own making."
Mann has received notice from the medical board that he could reapply
for his DEA license in June.
.
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