NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A Queens man who bought a gun with an "obliterated" serial number after posting about taking part in a "racial civil war" or carrying out a mass shooting has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison, prosecutors said Tuesday.
A Brooklyn federal judge handed a 57-month sentence down to Joseph Miner, 31, of Bayside on Tuesday morning, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said in a press release.
Miner started posting on social media about his desire to buy "assault weapons and other firearms" back in 2019, prosecutors said.
The Queens resident not only said he hoped to take part in a "racial civil war or racial holy war," but also voiced support for a number of racist attacks, including the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the 2019 machete attack at a synagogue in Monsey in Rockland County, according to prosecutors.
On some occasions, Miner walked back his interest in actively taking part in an attack, but at other times, he posted about "martyring" himself and going out in "a blaze of glory" by carrying out a mass shooting, prosecutors said.
In May of last year, he met up with an undercover law enforcement agent posing as a firearms dealer and bought a Glock 9mm handgun with an "obliterated serial number," the attorney's office said.
"Today's sentence holds Miner accountable for his knowing purchase of a firearm that could not be traced because its serial number had been removed," Acting U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis said in a statement.
"I commend the swift action taken by members of law enforcement to address the serious threat that possession of illegal guns poses to the safety of the community," Kasulis added.
