A Knightdale resident will spend three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to a gun charge, prosecutors announced last week.

U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III sentenced 41-year-old Derek Alan Gower to 37 months in prison and three years of supervised release in a Raleigh courtroom on Friday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

On Oct. 1, he pleaded guilty to one count of receiving and possessing a firearm having a barrel of less than 16 inches in length that was not registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.

Gower had been buying chemicals and other items that could be used to make explosives, prosecutors said, citing court documents and information presented in court. He also researched and purchased items to make homemade suppressors and grenades.

Federal agents searched Gower’s Knightdale home on June 24 and seized 11 guns, along with “grenade and grenade launcher part kits, kits to convert various weapons to be fully automatic and precursor materials to make explosives,” U.S. Attorney Michael Easley’s office said in a news release.

Prosecutors described two of the 11 seized firearms as “unregistered short-barreled assault rifles.”

The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in Raleigh investigated the case against Gower, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Gabriel J. Diaz handled his prosecution.