Ever since Harold McKinney pulled out a gun and shot a would-be holdup man in a Northside bar last week there have been those who want to turn him into some kind of a folk hero. But McKinney was wrong to carry a firearm into a bar and take the law into his own hands.

Ohio needs a clear and sensible law on carrying concealed firearms. But no such law should allow people to pack guns when they go into a saloon to have a few drinks.

When the two masked gunmen entered Junker's Tavern last Thursday, threatening McKinney and other bar patrons, McKinney opened fire. He hit one suspect and the other escaped, but was caught nearby. Perhaps McKinney's action stopped the would-be robbers from hurting anyone. But he could just as easily have missed and hit another patron. A gunfight could have erupted and more people could have been injured or killed.

Law enforcement is a job for police. McKinney had his weapon in a belt holster and was wearing a windbreaker. He was a member of the Cincinnati Citizens on Patrol Program, which prohibits its members to use guns while on duty, but said he acted as a private citizen the night he was in the bar.

Ohio's current law allows people to carry concealed firearms under certain conditions, but the only way to find out if you meet those conditions is to get arrested, go to court and prove it. That is a direct contradiction to the Constitutional assumption that a person is innocent until proven guilty.

Meanwhile, McKinney has been charged with felonious assault and carrying a weapon in a tavern. Should he be convicted? That will be determined in the court system, which will take the current gun law and the circumstances surrounding the case into account.