Yeah, it isn't entrapment. If an undercover cop had been talking to the guy saying things like, "you really should go get one of those free rifles" or kept putting some kind of pressure on him, then it would be entrapment.

Still, seems like a waste of taxpayer resources. Sounds like this happened in a small town so why not just get some veterans group, or raise the money himself, to put up a couple of billboards or an article in the local paper about the guy and what he's been doing. It isn't libel if it is true. Seems like that would accomplish more than wasting taxpayer resources on arresting, prosecuting, jailing etc.

Plus, how does that stop him anyway? Once he gets out of jail or whatever he can just go right back to it. If I lived in that town I'd be pissed that the Sheriff was using his office to enact a personal vendetta.

In a small enough town to where a Sheriff would have known someone was doing this on a regular basis word would have eventually gotten around about what this guy was doing. Trumping up charges on the guy is just an abuse of power and doesn't serve to help the greater good in any way. Stolen valor is a shitty thing to do but it doesn't hurt anyone as long as you're not using it to commit fraud. If being a jackass were a criminal offense we'd have to put most of the country in jail.