Man pleads guilty to threatening to ‘bomb’ Merriam-Webster offices over gender definitions

A California man pleaded guilty last week to threatening “to shoot up and bomb” dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster’s offices over its inclusive gender definitions and making similar threats to various other people and institutions, federal prosecutors announced. 

Jeremy David Hanson, 34, admitted to threatening Merriam-Webster, the president of the University of North Texas, the Walt Disney Company, the governor of California, the mayor of New York City, a rabbi and professors at Loyola Marymount University in California, according to an announcement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts Wednesday. 

Hanson, who was arrested in April, “frequently selected the object of his threatening communications because of the gender, gender identity and/or sexual orientation of various persons,” prosecutors announced. 

Hanson is convicted of two counts of interstate communication of threatening communications to commit violence, one for his threats to Merriam-Webster and another for threats against the University of North Texas president.  He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the Attorney’s office. A federal district judge will set his sentence. 

Hanson sent several threatening messages to Merriam-Webster over the course of a few days in October.

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Using the handle “@anonYmous,” he commented “There is no such thing as ‘gender identity.’ The imbecile who wrote this entry should be hunted down and shot,” on the website’s definition of “female,” according to the announcement. 

Six days later, Hanson used the “Contact Us” page on Merriam-Webster’s website to write “I am going to shoot up and bomb your offices for lying and creating fake definitions… Boys aren’t girls, and girls aren’t boys… I will assassinate your top editor,” according to the attorney’s office. That threat resulted in the company shutting down its offices in Springfield, Massachusetts, and New York City for five business days, the office said.