Sen. Robert Regola bought a 9mm Taurus handgun for his teenage son more than two years before that weapon was used in the suicide of his next-door neighbor, according to testimony from the senator’s brother-in-law this morning.

Regola, 45, a first-term Republican lawmaker from Hempfield, is on trial in Westmoreland County court for perjury, providing a gun to a minor, reckless endangerment and false swearing.

Prosecutors contend Regola was negligent and reckless in allowing his son, Robert “Bobby” Regola IV, who was 16 at the time, to have access to a 9 mm Taurus handgun. The gun was used in the suicide of the senator’s 14-year-old neighbor, Louis Farrell, in 2006.Full Article and Source