A longtime employee of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives owned one of the companies being investigated by Montgomery County officials for allegedly using a taxpayer-supported tuition assistance program to sell guns at steep discounts, state records show and county officials confirmed.
ATF program manager Gary Schaible is listed in state incorporation records as a co-owner of Global Law Enforcement Advisory Group, which county officials said may have improperly used money from a tuition assistance program to give $200 flashlights to course participants in 2007.
Sheriff Raymond Kight said Schaible was also an instructor for Global or the company it later became, Applied Sciences for Public Safety.
Kight said his office would continue to investigate Schaible’s involvement with the companies and whether he sold guns to course participants.
Schaible works in the ATF’s D.C. office as a program manager and has been at the agency since 1972, a bureau spokeswoman said. The Examiner has left multiple messages for Schaible over several weeks seeking comment. He has not returned those calls.
The Examiner first reported that two Montgomery County police officers also are listed on state incorporation records as owners of Global. The company was dissolved last week, records show. Incorporation records for Applied Sciences don’t indicate who owns the company.
Last month, Kight notified county officials that Applied Sciences was offering county public safety employees a $1,000 sniper rifle for about $400 this year and had offered Glock handguns, valued at about $500, for about $50 last year. Kight told The Examiner that subsequent investigations found that the guns were sold for $99.
An expired Facebook page for Applied Sciences advertising for an “undercover conceal carry” class lists a $99 Glock as part of the class.
About 100 public safety employees signed up for classes with Applied Sciences this year, and Kight said at least one of his deputies bought a sniper rifle and several bought handguns before the county froze payments for the classes.
Applied Sciences’ lawyer has publicly denied any wrongdoing, but the county has suspended all payments to the company. Both Applied Sciences and Global Law Enforcement are being investigated by Kight’s office, the county attorney and the inspector general.
