Owner of firearms companies sentenced to more than 10 years in federal prison on child pornography charges

ORLANDO, Fla. – The owner of two firearms companies was sentenced to 10 years and one month in federal prison and 10 years of supervised release for possessing and distributing child pornography following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

According to court documents, Bruce Lee Jennings, 64, of Port Orange, made child pornography directly available for others to download from his Internet Protocol address and peer-to-peer file sharing directory.

During a recorded interview, Jennings admitted to hoarding child pornography images and videos for more than five years. Law enforcement officers conducted a forensic examination of his computers and hard drives and found that Jennings amassed more than 1,490 images and 3,220 videos depicting images of children being sexually abused and exploited.

In addition to his sentence, the court ordered Jennings to forfeit his computer equipment and $500,000 from the sale of his home, both of which were used to commit the offenses.

Jennings owns two firearms companies – Bryco Arms and B. L. Jennings Firearms.

He pleaded guilty Jan. 28.

The investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide HSI initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders and child sex traffickers.

HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-347-2423 or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, via its toll-free 24-hour hotline, 1-800-843-5678.

HSI is a founding member of the Virtual Global Taskforce, an international alliance of law enforcement agencies and private industry sector partners working together to prevent and deter online child sexual abuse.