A crazy Long Island geezer allegedly transformed his basement into a makeshift shooting range equipped with an incredible arsenal of self-built machine guns, including a “weapon of mass killing” — set just steps away from several schools.
Wen-Lone Chou, 67, operated a sprawling suburban gun lab inside his Mineola home down the road from Chaminade High School, a Mineola school soccer field and a nearby elementary school — that was fit with a 25-foot-long DIY shooting range in his basement, prosecutors alleged.
After a year-long, multi-agency probe, cops arrested Chou Wednesday after rifling through his home, where they discovered a staggering cache of firepower.
“What’s even more terrifying — this illegal, dangerous activity was happening steps away from several schools,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly told reporters Thursday.
Police uncovered 10 mostly illegal guns, including seven assault-style rifles, a home-assembled fully automatic MP5-style weapon, a 9mm ghost gun with illegal parts, 78 high-capacity magazines — some stashed in Chou’s ceiling — along with six suppressors, roughly 6,000 rounds of ammo, and a rapid-fire switch capable of turning rifles into machine guns.
The only legal weapon in the home was an old bolt-action hunting rifle, Donnelly said.
Investigators also uncovered five completed lower frames — which are handgun and AR-style platforms awaiting additional components to be completed — along with parts capable of assembling yet another MP5-style firearm and even turning his AR-style weapons into a fully automatic killing machine.
“[Chou] had all the components to assemble an actual machine gun,” Donnelly said.
“This tiny item right here can effectively turn these firearms into machine guns,” she added, holding up the small metal “switch” device prosecutors said can transform a semi-automatic rifle into a full auto weapon.
“It makes an already deadly weapon, a weapon of mass killing.”
But what truly stunned authorities was what they said was hidden below Chou’s house — a fully functioning 25-foot underground firing tunnel, with the walls lined with blue tarps to contain debris and sound, and a four-inch-thick plywood target riddled with rounds.
Chou used suppressors while firing in his tunnel so neighbors and children across the street wouldn’t hear the shots ring out, authorities alleged.
The probe launched in January 2025, after Chou was flagged as an alleged frequent online buyer of gun parts from multiple retailers — purchasing roughly 112 firearm-related components over the course of the prior year, according to prosecutors.
“This kind of purchasing pattern is an immediate red flag for our law enforcement,” Donnelly said.
Authorities also learned that Chou’s Nassau County pistol permit had been revoked in 1999 following a domestic incident, though he has no prior arrests — raising even more concern as investigators tracked what they described as an escalating pattern of purchases.
Prosecutors are determining whether Chou was simply a gun enthusiast who went wildly overboard or if there was a more sinister motive.
There is no evidence, so far, that he sold the weapons or was actively plotting an attack, authorities said.
Chou pleaded not guilty in Hempstead court on Thursday. His bail was set at $250,000 cash, $625,000 bond or $1.25 million partially secured, and he was ordered to surrender his passport.
If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
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