A convicted felon with an anarchist symbol tattooed on his chest faces federal charges after he parked his car at Cabela’s in North Fort Worth with a sign advertising an illegal device that converts pistols into machine guns, according to court records.
A recently unsealed criminal complaint and search warrant affidavit by an ATF agent spelled out details of the investigation.
On Jan. 8, Fort Worth police received a report of a silver Mitsubishi parked at Cabela’s with a handwritten sign that said, “Glock Full Auto Switches 4 Sale.”
Investigators traced the car to Hayden Gow who has two criminal convictions for burglary, the ATF said.
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
An undercover agent texted Gow asking about buying the conversion device.
“Man I just sold out. I’ll be getting more though so I’ll let you know,” he texted back, according to the warrant.
Gow has a “distinctive chest tattoo displaying an anarchist symbol and the quote, ‘Awake, Arise, or be Forever Fallen,’” an ATF agent wrote in a demand for Gow’s Facebook information.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
Gow was arrested on charges he was a convicted felon in possession of a firearm after agents obtained surveillance video of him selling a gun at a Burleson pawn shop, the complaint said.
He is not charged directly with selling or possessing machine gun conversion kits.
Gow is currently held in the Johnson County jail on a drug charge after he was arrested by Burleson police in May.
Sara Abel, spokeswoman for the ATF’s Dallas office, said she could not comment on the Gow case but added that the issue of machine gun “conversion kits” is a growing problem.
