A Massachusetts technology consultant who feared martial law was imminent and was preparing for “Armageddon,” according to police, has been charged with stockpiling weapons, and having explosive devices including tear gas and pepper ball canisters.
Gregory Girard of Manchester was arrested Tuesday night after a friend of his wife tipped off the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Bureau to Girard’s alleged weapons stash, reports the Gloucester Daily Times. ATF then notified local police.
Police said Girard also had military camouflage clothing, knives, handcuffs, bulletproof vests and helmets, night vision goggles, medicine, and six months’ worth of food supplies. “We don’t think he was preparing to attack the community, he was preparing for domestic and political turmoil,” the police chief told the paper.
At Girard’s arraignment — where he pleaded not guilty to the multiple weapons charge — prosecutors said that Girard’s wife, a psychiatrist, had told police that her husband had lately grown increasingly paranoid. She said her husband had recently told her: “Don’t talk to people, shoot them instead,” and “It’s fine to shoot people in the head because traitors deserve it.”
The chief of police said in court that Girard “indicated he was preparing for ‘Armageddon’ which he felt was imminent,” adding that Girard feared martial law “would soon be imposed.”
Girard also had set up a “shooting range” in his attic, which was littered with shell casings. He said in court that he uses the area to fire a .22-caliber rifle, and has installed a steel backdrop. Girard was also charged with discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling.
Girard’s license to carry a firearm, which he had had since May, was revoked.
Girard runs Girard Consulting Partners, which “provides expert witness and other consulting services to clients that require a technical expert with an in-depth knowledge of telecommunications technology,” according to its website.
He claims on the site to have “extensive experience introducing new technology to senior technical staff at major telecommunications carriers, including SBC Communications, Verizon, BellSouth, Qwest, Global Crossing, WorldCom, Sprint, Allegiance and NTT in Japan.”
Girard’s case is only the latest manifestation of what may be an increasing paranoid concern in some quarters about a government monopoly on firearms. In April 2009, a Pittsburgh man allegedly shot three police officers after warning that the Obama administration planned to institute a gun ban. And the Oath Keepers, a group that stokes fears about a government plan to confiscate weapons, has lately risen to prominence.
