NORFOLK, Va. (WRIC) — A Virginia Beach man with ties to right-wing extremist groups will serve prison time after he was found to have built homemade silencers for firearms without registering them.
According to court documents, in 2019, the FBI received a tip regarding concerning Facebook posts made by 23-year-old George Pickard of Virginia Beach threatening violence against minorities. Later, FBI agents learned that in February of 2020, Pickard went to a militia camp with an AR-15-style rifle with a homemade silencer that he said was not registered.
On Dec. 29, 2020, FBI agents searched Pickard’s parents’ home and found at least four firearms, one of which was an AR-15-style rifle. Two of the firearms found had homemade silencers attached and two were equipped with high-capacity magazines. A search of the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record confirmed that Pickard had not registered either of the silencers.
According to the United States Department of Justice, Pickard has associated himself with several white supremacist and far-right extremist organizations, including Patriot Front and Identity Evropa, which later became known as the American Identity Movement.
Pickard also cohosts a podcast called “White Phosphorus,” which depicts women and racial minorities “in a negative and derogatory manner.” He has made threats against minorities on several online platforms, including saying that he wanted to “use a belt-fed machine gun” on one minority group.
On Jan. 26, 2023, Pickard was sentenced to 37 months in prison for unlawfully possessing unregistered silencers.
