Man who made threats facing U.S. gun charges

A man committed to a federal psychiatric facility for threatening to shoot federal judges in 1998 has been caught and charged with trying to purchase a firearm at a Salt Lake City pawn shop.

According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court Thursday, Benjamin Archuleta lied on an ATF background check form that he had never been adjudicated as mentally defective nor committed to a mental institution when he attempted to purchase a firearm Sept. 2.

However, court documents indicate that Archuleta had been indicted for making threats by telephone to shoot federal judges in 1998. Archuleta became angry when he asked a federal court clerk if the U.S. Supreme Court would hear his worker's compensation claim. He allegedly told the clerk, "The only way to get justice is to shoot those judges."

After being warned by the U.S. Marshal's office against making threats, Archuleta reportedly said "God's wrath" would destroy the courthouse and alledgedly later told a clerk "I will go to the judge's house and I will write on his face with a knife and stab him in the heart."

Archuleta was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was committed to the federal psychiatric facility in Springfield, Mo. in July, 1999. Federal prosecutors could not say how or why he returned to Salt Lake City.

Archuleta has been charged with violating the federal prohibition of anyone committed to a mental institution possessing a firearm.