US town says it intends to fire police chief who posted videos of himself shooting guns

GILBERTON, Pa. – A Pennsylvania town says it intends to fire a police chief previously suspended after he posted online videos of himself shooting automatic weapons and going on profanity-laced tirades about liberals and the constitutional right to bear arms.

The announcement of Gilberton’s plan to fire police chief Mark Kessler was made Thursday. It came after a closed-door disciplinary hearing his lawyer says concerned unrelated and trumped-up allegations town officials were using to conceal their intent to fire him over the videos.

Kessler is Gilberton’s only full-time police officer. He acknowledges the videos are inflammatory but says he was simply drawing attention to the erosion of the constitutionally protected rights to speak freely and to bear arms.

Kessler says he’s organizing an armed, non-government group whose mission is to defend the constitution and the country from tyranny.