Former Sheriff Claims Corruption Allegations Really Just a Gun Rights Effort

I’ve written a fair bit about why there shouldn’t be different rules on guns for police officers versus private citizens. It’s nothing against cops, either. As I’ve said more than once, I was raised by a police officer. I grew up around law enforcement. Most of my friends from my early childhood were the other kids’ of police officers.

Yet the truth of the matter is that there are different rules.

And those different rules are the reason one former sheriff is apparently on trial.

Lawyers for former Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins began arguing Thursday why they say he’s an innocent man and not guilty of taking $75,000 in bribes.

Making their case for the first time in federal court in Charlottesville, Jenkins’ attorneys told jurors his actions in support of Second Amendment rights were a “creative response” and “provocative.” They said donors “supported his idea with time, their service. They supported it with their money,” a lawyer said. “They gave and they gave big.”

“You won’t hear any credible evidence that Mr. Jenkins accepted a bribe,” the defense said. “Scott Jenkins did no such thing and committed no crime.”

The testimony confirmed much of what the News4 I-Team has reported about the case since April 2023. Jenkins is accused of taking bribes from people who allegedly wanted law enforcement badges making them auxiliary deputies.

Now, the big question is whether money actually changed hands in exchange for auxiliary officer status. If not, then I fail to see the problem.

Look, the fact that these guys just have a badge but absolutely no training isn’t great. If nothing else, one of these guys decides to make an arrest or something–they can because they have a badge–and screws everything up, it’s going to go badly for the county. However, Jenkins is out of office now, so that potential damage is mitigated. Yet I also get the idea at work here.

If people who do have a badge get special treatment, then there’s an incentive to allow people to enjoy that special treatment.

Jenkins claims to have been motivated by ideology. 

Yet in states that had “may issue” laws, there was a perverse incentive to take bribes in exchange for gun permits. Even if Jenkins was bribed, the truth is that the system that creates a new layer of rules created an incentive for that bribery to happen.

If not, well, he did nothing wrong in my book. Yeah, it’s not great these guys didn’t have any training, but if that’s not an actual requirement to deputize someone then that’s not a problem in my book. I may see pitfalls, but that’s not the same as saying it’s wrong in and of itself.

I don’t like that there are different sets of rules for various people. I’ll never like it because our rights aren’t supposed to work like that. Yet if that’s how it is, you can’t be surprised that some people will try to game that system any way they can. In this case, handing out badges works just fine for bypassing infringements, so I’m personally inclined to accept Jenkins at his word regarding his reasons.

And I applaud it.