Massachusetts Army veteran now living in Florida sentenced to prison for threatening organization against gun violence

BOSTON – A Massachusetts man now living in Florida was sentenced in federal court for sending threatening communications to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Justice, 31-year-old Drummond Neil Smithson was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni to 14 months in prison and three years of supervised release. In November 2022, Smithson pleaded guilty to one count of use of interstate communications to transmit a threat to injure.

On or about July 19, 2020, Smithson, an Army veteran, mailed a threatening communication from Ayer, Mass., to the Department of Veterans Affairs threatening to injure members of Moms Demand Action, a grassroots organization advocating for the end to gun violence. In the letter, Smithson threatened, among other things, “If you take my pension there is going to be retaliation,” and, “You take my pension and the second I get out of prison I will go to a Moms Demand Action meeting […] Try me.”

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins and Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement today. Assistance was provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Inspector General; Federal Bureau of Investigations, Miami Field Office; and Federal Medical Center, Devens, Special Investigations Section. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen Noto of Rollins’ Worcester Branch Office prosecuted the case.