Missouri high school student is charged with possessing machine guns

A northwest Missouri high school student who was caught at school possessing a handgun and wearing body armor was charged Wednesday with possessing illegal machine guns.

Federal prosecutors in Kansas City charged 19-year-old Michael T. Knoth of Tarkio with two counts of possessing illegal firearms.

According to court documents, police were called to Tarkio High School on Feb. 11 after another student reported seeing a loaded magazine for a firearm.

Knoth was wearing body armor, military-style clothing and boots, according to the documents.

Inside his backpack, officials found a loaded 9 mm handgun, extra loaded ammunition magazines, a knife, a seat belt cutter and a window punch.

In his car parked outside the school, additional loaded magazines were found.

Inside his house, a search turned up two firearms that “displayed the traits of a machine gun” and a device that can be used to convert a semi-automatic rifle to one that is fully automatic, according to the allegations.

Along with Wednesday’s charges, prosecutors filed a motion to have Knoth held in custody while the case is pending.

This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 4:45 PM with the headline "Missouri high school student is charged with possessing machine guns."