Harold McKinney was charged with felonious assault and carrying a firearm in a liquor establishment because he pulled out a gun and shot a man in Junker's Tavern in Northside last week. A Hamilton County grand jury declined to indict him because the guy he shot was an armed stickup man trying to rob the place. ( May 17 story )

Well, that's the way the system is supposed to work. The grand jury gets to decide that under certain circumstances people shouldn't be prosecuted, even when, on the face of it, they did something wrong.

But we still hope that the next time McKinney goes out for a drink, he leaves his gun at home. There is a law against taking guns into bars for a good reason. People who have a few drinks tend to have impaired judgment. The same reason you aren't supposed drink and drive is why it's a bad idea to be packing when you have had a few.

The same grand jury that let McKinney off the hook on Friday, indicted Joseph Person, the man he shot, and Demeico Hester, accused of being his accomplice. Both are now in jail on charges of robbery and aggravated robbery.

We don't quarrel with the justice of McKinney going free while the two would-be robbers go to trial. His actions may get him a free drink and a few backslaps the next time he goes into a bar, but he isn't a hero. He's just a guy with a gun who did something foolish and got very lucky.