The podcaster, Joseph Paul Berger, and his father, Joseph Raymond Berger, had 13 fully automatic machine guns and 12 gun silencers that were illegally imported into the United States, officials said.
A Pennsylvania man who hosted what he described as “the alt-right’s favorite firearms-related podcast” was, along with his father, indicted on several gun charges, including possessing machine guns and unregistered silencers, according to federal prosecutors.
The men, Joseph Paul Berger, 32, and Joseph Raymond Berger, 67, owned 13 fully automatic machine guns and 12 gun silencers that were illegally imported into the United States, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said in a statement on Thursday.
“These weapons are extremely dangerous, which is why there are laws regulating their possession,” Jennifer Arbittier Williams, the U.S. attorney for the district, said.
Phone messages and emails left for lawyers for the two men were not immediately returned on Saturday evening.
Joseph Paul Berger, a Navy veteran who lives with his parents, was the host of “Alt-Right Armory,” where he used the name “GlockDoctor1488” and discussed topics like how to use 3-D printers to make “ghost guns,” or firearms that are assembled from kits and do not carry serial numbers, according to prosecutors.
The case against the two men began after federal authorities seized three packages, prosecutors said, that contained firearm silencers shipped from China and addressed to the men at their home in Bethlehem, Pa., which is about 60 miles north of Philadelphia.
Paperwork for two of the silencers included the cellphone number for the younger man, according to court documents.
Federal authorities obtained a search warrant for the home and seized the silencers and firearms, which were suspected, and later confirmed, to be machine guns. The items were not registered as required under the National Firearms Act, according to prosecutors.
Investigators said all of the guns were modified after purchase into being capable of fully automatic fire.
In arguing that the younger Mr. Berger, who does not have a criminal history, was a threat and should be detained until trial, prosecutors cited the anti-government and anti-law enforcement views espoused on his podcast.
In one episode, Mr. Berger said “a white man with a rifle can be very dangerous to the system indeed if he has the right motivation” and also praised the values of Eric Frein, who was convicted and sentenced to death in the 2014 ambush killing of a Pennsylvania state trooper, prosecutors said in court documents.
Mr. Berger and an unidentified co-host also discuss targeting the police, along with “legislators, lobbyists and left-wing billionaires,” for assassination, prosecutors said.
“They halfheartedly claim that the discussion is a ‘prank’ and a ‘playful thought,’ and they are not advocating for violence, but it is clear that the discussions are serious,” prosecutors wrote.
A magistrate judge granted the prosecutors’ motion to keep the younger Mr. Berger detained. The judge released the elder Mr. Berger on $25,000 bail. He could not be reached at his home on Saturday night. If convicted, they face up to 30 years in prison, prosecutors said.
In the pilot episode of his podcast on Jan. 14, 2019, the younger Mr. Berger explained the origin of his love of guns.
It started when he was 5 years old, shooting milk cartons with an air pistol in the Poconos in Northeastern Pennsylvania. But it wasn’t until after he went to a shooting range for his birthday, when he was 9 or 10, shortly after watching “Dirty Harry,” the 1971 movie starring Clint Eastwood in the role of a homicide division inspector who uses brutal tactics against criminals, that Mr. Berger became hooked on guns, he said.
“We got a Smith and Wesson M29,” he said, referring to the gun model used by Mr. Eastwood’s character, “and from that moment on, I think I found my calling in life.”
It was a calling supported by his father, Mr. Berger said in the podcast episode.
The elder Mr. Berger did not allow his son to curse or watch nudity on television, the son said, adding, “But when it came to firearms, he was like, ‘No problem.’”
