Cops: Man Threatened To Re-Enact Va. Tech

Florida 20-Year-Old Found With Weapons Cache; Killing Spree Threat Found Online

(AP)  A 20-year-old with a weapons cache that included four AK-47s was arrested after threatening over the Internet to undertake a Virginia Tech-style massacre, authorities said Thursday.

Oregon authorities learned of a March 25 Internet message allegedly posted by Calin Chi Wong in which he threatened to re-enact the Virginia Tech killings. Two days later, Homestead Police searched the home Wong shares with his parents and found the weapons in stacked on shelves in plain view, Detective Antonio Aquino said.

Wong had 13 firearms in all, more than 5,000 rounds of ammunition, some that could pierce armor, and 100 rounds in a feeding clip with bullets "meant to take down aircraft or military machinery," Aquino said. He had hidden two AK-47s in his parents' closet, and his parents said the guns did not belong to them, Aquino said.

Wong was charged with making written threats to kill or do bodily injury via the computer and bonded out for $7,500. Additional charges are pending, he said.

It was not known whether he had a lawyer. A message left by The Associated Press at a phone number listed for Wong was not immediately returned Thursday evening. The phone at his employer, China King, rang unanswered.

Homestead Police first noticed Wong when he went to the department in February to complain he had been robbed of $800 over the Internet after he ordered a gun online using his father's PayPal account.

He told authorities he had called the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and other agencies about the issue. Aquino said Wong finally reached a boiling point when he posted the message saying he would re-enact the Virginia Tech massacre, in which student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people last year before turning the gun on himself.

"After speaking to him and seeing his frustration, I believe that he had the potential to carry out some kind of threat," Aquino said.

Wong felt isolated and cut off, authorities noted, saying he had been buying and selling guns for about two years and word was now getting around about Wong's age. Dealers stopped selling to him, and he was being banned from certain gun-sale Web sites.

"I'm soon to the point to re-enact the whole event," Wong wrote under the name "thehumanabc," referring to the shootings last April at Virginia Tech. "This may not seem like a threat to you, but I'm sure others don't want to see it occur again. It should be a wake up call for All haters out there," according to an arrest report.

Aquino said Wong told police that making the threat made him feel good because after "he had thousands of people on the Internet paying attention to him."

But Wong also said he was just upset and frustrated and never actually planned a killing spree, Aquino said.

But authorities also found a school book bag lined with bulletproof vests inside Wong's home, as well as two handguns.

Wong is not in college, Aquino said. He graduated from an Oregon high school and attended a college for a year before moving in with his parents in Florida, authorities said.

Wong said the weapons were an investment.

"He says it's a lucrative business," Aquino said. "He said if Hillary Clinton wins she'll put a ban on assault rifles, and these assault rifles will be worth more in value."

[klingon69]

Poison is too hard to procure/manufacture,and it''''s less reliable. With a bomb, you blow yourself to smithereens, which means no body, no glory. It also takes some skill to manufacture, and you might blow yourself up in the learning process. Nope, for easy glory, nothing else is as easy and accessible as an assault gun.

There is no reason why any citizen who is not in the military, police, or the security business needs an assault weapon. Their easy availability has resulted in too many mass murder incidents to ignore or dismiss the problem. Ditto for armor piercing bullets and bulletproof body armor. There is no way he, or any other person who is not a law enforcement professional, should have been allowed to buy these items.
Posted by flreason at 09:30 AM : Apr 04, 2008
Poison is actually very easy and inexpensive to manufacture. If you follow a few safety rules, the chances of blowing yourself up with a homemade explosive are quite negligible. I have body armor.

[mediapreachr]

As usual when manipulation is in full swing-no name for the author of this article.
Can someone please tell me where in the Constitution says that an illegal or resident alien is entitled to own any weapons?
Same as the articles that came out,after the Virginia Tech incident (where the perp wasn''t even a citizen-with no right to carry anything),this propaganda piece is aimed at regular tax paying citizens.Soon,"soccer moms","well meaning folk" etc are out of the woodwork-screaming to change the rules.
The good thing is that in this case the police did their job.

[bhappy2-2]

I think that gagging the media is much more of a threat to our democracy than limiting the access to war weapons by people who have no need for them. Posted by flreason

I think giving up ANY of our rights would be disastrous to the others. When we allow one right to be taken, regardless of which it is, the others will soon follow.

[payasyougo]

Elsewhere on cbsnew.com there is a story on a man who murdered his three children:

"Grieving Mom Of Drowned Kids Speaks Out
Md. Woman Laments Court Failures; Husband Charged With Drowning Their 3 Children In Hotel Room
VIENNA, Va., April 4, 2008"

Another senseless mass murder. Because of this people should once again rally together with the call to ban guns in America.

[gunownerdan]

Can you give me a good reason why anyone other than those I already named, need the right to purchase AK-47s?
Posted by flreason

Semi automatic rifles are very popular especially for target shooting and plinking.
Authentic fully automatic AK-47''s are not available to the general public.
Most AK-47 style rifles being purchased today are semi-automatic not fully automatic.
They are not much different from many other semi-automatic rifles out there including popular .22 plinking rifles.
The bullets they fire is often the 7.62 x 39mm cartridge which is a little smaller and weaker than most ammo typically used for deer hunting.

[flreason]

"Again, you refused to address the point I raised. I never state that mass murder did not exist before, I stated that the press incites people to imitate them."
Posted by vet999999

So what makes more sense, censorship of the press or limiting access to the AK-47 types of weapons that were created for warfare, and whose sole purpose is to kill as many people as possible in a short amount of time?

Seems to me that there are two provisions of the Bill of Rights that are in play here. So we must balance the costs and benefits of each, and try to find a reasonable compromise.

I think that gagging the media is much more of a threat to our democracy than limiting the access to war weapons by people who have no need for them. If the current system--"heavily regulated by the government and the general public cannot buy them legally"--were working, this young man would not have been able to acquire his stash.

The media report news. Most of it is ignored. Some sensational stories become a media circus. This isn''t new. Look at the Lindbergh kidnapping in the 1920s. Are you suggesting that the media coverage influenced other kidnappers? How about the British press coverage of Jack the Ripper? Get real.

Can you give me a good reason why anyone other than those I already named, need the right to purchase AK-47s?

[dwnsouth2007]

what is the world coming to? 7500 bond for such strong threat to our country! why aren''t the parents getting questioned about this situation? and we wonder why people don''t have a problem with committing these crimes.... because you can pay your way out on such small bonds for huge crimes!!!!!!!!!!!!

[flreason]

gunownerdan:

Did I say handguns? No! Did I say hunting rifles? No! As for the man who plowed into a group of people, as I recall he was elderly and it was an accident, not a deliberate action.

You''re playing the neocon game of trying to deflect valid criticism by using a false analogy. You point at some unrelated tragedy, and then try to demonize the person whose logic you can''t refute by associating them with it, or by portraying it as no different than the assault weapon incident. Your tactics are transparent.

The safety of the general public outweighs your immature need to play war. And I didn''t even rob you of that. I merely suggested that the use of these weapons be controlled--placing them in a gun club setting. Grow up and act like a responsible adult instead of a petulant child who throws a tantrum for his toys.

[nolalou]

Who are you to decide what kind of guns I can or can''''t own? Posted by gunownerdan

Actually, there are all kinds of weapons you cannot legally own! Anti-aircraft weapons for example. There can be a right to bear arms, and still reasonable regulations, such as licensing, background checks, etc. Most of these measures are opposed by groups like the NRA, no matter how much sense they make.

[darnedsocks]

What an idiot. Wasn''t there some other "hobby" he could have found to make money in? AND why didn''t his parents use the key phrase, "Now wait a minute here!" when they saw his stash of weapons in plain sight in his room?

[gunownerdan]

"Wong was charged with making written threats to kill or do bodily injury via the computer and bonded out for $7,500"

No wonder there are so many dangerous criminals out there. They are being let out of jail like they are a threat to no one!

[kaviz]

What amazes me, he notified local police and the Feds about a problem purchase using his fathers credentials and that didn''t sound any alarms. Sounds like the people protecting us really dropped the ball. Also, when dealers realized he was underage and stopped selling to him, why didn''t any of the inform the authorities? It''s lucky he didn''t commit the act before posting the threat. Unbelievable!

[fibonacci_]

Guns have as much to do with crime as matches do with arson.

Posted by gunownerdan

- Oooo, strong argument.

[bluespetal]

What are they thinking to bond this guy out of jail at all, let alone for such a paltry amount?? It just doesn''t make sense. At the very least, he should be put in a locked forensic psych unit. Have we all lost our minds?

[kaviz]

Only $7500 bond? What the f***?

[gunownerdan]

guns have anything to do with these type of crimes that upsets me.
Posted by fibonacci_

Guns have as much to do with crime as matches do with arson.

[fibonacci_]

It is the absolute refusal to believe that guns have anything to do with these type of crimes that upsets me. That is like saying the death toll in Hiroshima in 1945 had nothing whatsoever to do with nuclear bombs.

[vet999999]

Mass murders existed before the printing press. And the media don''''t provide the means to accomplish these acts. There is no reason for anyone who is not a security professional to own these guns. If you boys want to play with them, make them available to gun clubs that would allow target shooting in a controlled setting. Your need to prove your masculinity is not sufficient reason for guns whose sole purpose is warfare against other humans to be available to the general public.

Posted by flreason at 09:52 AM : Apr 04, 2008
--------
Again, you refused to address the point I raised. I never state that mass murder did not exist before, I stated that the press incites people to imitate them. So if you girsl wish not to have a weapon or not be around them, dont buy one and move to a state/country that bans guns.

[gunownerdan]

There is no reason for anyone who is not a security professional to own these guns.
Posted by flreason

Who are you to decide what kind of guns I can or can''t own?
Automatic assault weapons are already heavily regulated by the government and the general public cannot buy them legally.
What more do you want?

[gunownerdan]

There is no reason why any citizen who is not in the military, police, or the security business needs an assault weapon.
Posted by flreason

To you any common handgun or semi automatic rifle would be considered an "assault weapon".
A man recently plowed his car into a crowd and killed about a dozen people.
Let''s ban assault vehicles.