Former Pennsylvania State Trooper Accused of Lying On Gun Paperwork :: 02/04/2020

Only the police can be trusted with guns.

That is, after all, the central premise of gun control, right? While anti-gunners often claim they don’t want this, I have yet to see an anti-gunner articulate a single position that’s simply too far for them. As a result, we have to assume that the only people they want with guns are the police.

Yet the problem is, police forces are made up of ordinary folks. Like any other group made up from society at large, they’re going to get some good people and some awful people. Most are, like everywhere else, somewhere in between.

One former Pennsylvania state trooper is accused of being in that second camp, though, as he faces charges that he lied on gun purchase paperwork.

A former state police officer accused of falsifying an application to buy two firearms did not attempt to break the law, his lawyer told a Westmoreland County jury as his trial started Monday.

Chad Corbett, 40, of New Derry, believed criminal charges alleging he had assaulted a woman were to be dismissed when he signed documents in early March 2018 to buy guns at the Army-Navy Store in Latrobe, defense attorney Fran Murrman said.

Corbett had a plea bargain deal in place since a preliminary hearing just weeks after his arrest in November 2017 in which felony charges were to be dismissed in exchange for his successfully completing anger management treatment, according to Murrman. That deal, in which Corbett pleaded guilty to a summary harassment charge, was finalized March 23, 2018, Murrman said.

…

Corbett was aware of the pending assault charges when he filled out paperwork to purchase the guns, Assistant District Attorney Mike Pacek said in his opening statement. That paperwork required Corbett to disclose he faced charges that could result in at least a year in jail, if convicted, Pacek said.

After a background check determined he was ineligible to buy the weapons, Corbett’s then-fiancee, who now is his wife, came back to the store seeking to buy the weapons on his behalf, according to Pacek.

“Clearly this was an attempt to get these guns when he knew he wasn’t allowed to,” Pacek said. “He knows he broke the law.”

Now, I don’t know the details of the assault case Corbett was facing, but if the charges were still pending and he claimed they weren’t, then that doesn’t look good for him.

His girlfriend trying to commit a straw buy for him afterward, though, really doesn’t look good.

However, it should be noted that attempting to buy guns for an ineligible person is illegal. I’m curious where the charges are against her.

Don’t get me wrong, I oppose pretty much every gun control law on the books anywhere.  I think I should be legally allowed to defend my home with heavy artillery if I so desire, after all.

But we have laws on the books and if they’re not enforced, I see even less reason than usual pass more laws.

If Corbett broke the law–and from what I see here, he probably did, though this is probably less than everything to be seen in the case. It’s unlike the media has the whole story and, if they did, that they’d share it–then he should probably be punished for it. The problem is, how many others lied on paperwork around that same time and aren’t being prosecuted?

I can’t help but think that Corbett is being hit here simply because the assault case fell apart and prosecutors are still pissed at him, so they’ll go after him on this when so few others get prosecuted for the same thing.

If so, he deserves to walk even if he knew. Malicious prosecution should never be acceptable.

Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger and lifetime shooter. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia. https://bearingarms.com/author/tomknighton/

https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2020/02/04/former-pn-trooper-accused-lying/