Harrison police have charged a man who is not permitted to own a firearm with a felony for, police say, intentionally providing false information about his past when trying to buy a gun from a sporting goods store.
Anthony Lee Miller, 41, of Pine Court in New Kensington, was charged with one count of illegal sale or transfer of a firearm along with providing false information on the application to buy a gun.
Harrison police said they were notified by state police that Miller tried to buy a gun at Dunham’s Sports in the Highlands Mall on Oct. 2 and that the application was denied.
State police said Miller marked “No” to the question about whether he was ever committed to a mental facility or deemed by a court to be mentally ill, according to a criminal complaint.
But when the state conducted an instant background check, they found that Miller was involuntarily committed to a mental facility on April 5, 2001, and again on Aug. 13, 2007. That makes him ineligible to own a gun, the complaint said.
Miller also can’t own a gun because he previously pleaded guilty to a pair of theft charges as well as criminal use of a communications facility, which are felonies, according to his arrest papers.
He faces a preliminary hearing on the charge before District Judge Carolyn S. Bengel on March 2.
