The Loveland man who was arrested after the FBI discovered four homemade pipe bombs in his house served 13 years with the Colorado National Guard in special forces and rose to the rank of captain.
Bradley Bunn, 53, served between about 1994 and 2007, a spokesman for the Colorado National Guard said Thursday. It was not clear from the records — which in that era were kept on paper and can be spotty — if Bunn served full-time or part-time during those years or how he parted from the service, Joseph VonNida, the spokesman, said.
The FBI served a search warrant on Bunn’s Loveland home last week after he made threats that drew the attention of law enforcement. During a court hearing Wednesday, Bunn’s attorney, Matthew Golla, said Bunn served in the U.S. Army and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after spending time as a rifle platoon commander during the Iraq War. The Army referred a request seeking details on Bunn’s service to the National Guard.
In March, a man who identified himself as “Brad Bunn from Loveland” testified before the state House Judiciary Committee in favor of repealing the state’s red flag law, and said during the three-minute statement that the government has no right to take citizens’ guns.
“You have no right under the constitution to disarm anyone,” he said during the testimony. “It is not your right to do so. It is treason. I will say it so plain and clear. It is treason to take our weapons. Don’t do it.”
The man said that he’d suffered a mental health crisis in 2009, and that he’d received care and that there was no reason for law enforcement to take his guns when he suffered that crisis.
During Wednesday’s hearing, prosecutor David Tonini said Bunn should be kept in custody because he presented a danger to law enforcement. In particular, Tonini said Bunn told officers he would “fight to the death” to keep his firearms and that he was stockpiling guns for a coming war.
Magistrate Judge Michael Hegarty asked officials to check on whether Bunn could be released into an inpatient treatment program managed by Veterans Affairs and did not make a decision Wednesday on Bunn’s release, according to court records.
Bunn is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing Monday.
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