Special Report: How a Pennsylvania
Sheriff became a gun control patsy

At the very least, Montgomery County Sheriff Sean Kilkenny has violated his oath of office, particularly the portion in which he swore to support and defend the United States Constitution including the Second Amendment.

Montgomery County is a Philadelphia suburb and the third largest county in Pennsylvania. Sheriff Kilkenny oversees approximately 115 deputies who lack a traditional law enforcement mission. They neither patrol nor respond to 911 calls regularly. Their "core responsibilities" include courthouse security, transporting prisoners and serving warrants and other legal process. Most of the actual police work in Montgomery County is done by local and State Police, the Sheriff acknowledges on his website.

At a time when most law enforcement agencies are struggling with budget cuts and severe recruiting and staffing problems, Kilkenny's deputies were looking for more to do. The Sheriff recently ordered them to start conducting warrantless inspections of local gun dealers in their jurisdiction. In addition to a Federal Firearm License, gun dealers in the Commonwealth must also obtain a state license, according to a regulation promulgated by the Pennsylvania State Police. This state license requires the dealers to agree to warrantless searched by the State Police or their designee – in this case the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.

A series of emails obtained by the Second Amendment Foundation through Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know legislation shows how Sheriff Kilkenny, who is also an attorney, was practically groomed into agreeing to conduct these inspections by a statewide gun-control group, CeaseFirePA. The emails also demonstrate how neither the Sheriff's Office nor CeaseFirePA knew what they were doing when they established the program, or even how to train the deputies before sending them out to inspect local gun dealers.

One national firearm industry expert said it is incredibly rare for local law enforcement to inspect gun dealers, who are already federally licensed and overregulated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. .....