Joseph McVey is a national media darling now because he did the unthinkable - he possessed a firearm in the parking lot of an airport at which the President of the United States had just departed.  For the "going armed to the terror of the public" charges to make any sense one must set aside the fact that McVey apparently had an Ohio Concealed Handgun License issued by the Coshocton County Sheriff's Office and recognized by North Carolina – until the Coshocton County Sheriff suspended it this week based on a rather perplexing interpretation of Ohio Revised Code 2923.128.

The North Carolina Attorney General's Office told the Asheville Citizen Times that "going armed to the terror of the public" means carrying a gun for the purpose of terrifying others.  North Carolina and Ohio have entered into a reciprocity agreement, which means McVey was more than likely lawfully in possession of his firearm, and chances are prosecutors will have a very hard time proving that McVey's intent was to terrorize anyone.  But the airport Police Chief Jeff Augram wants us to forget about the law and think of the children, as he was quoted in this Citizen Times article:

“We had a large number of folks watching Air Force One take off and a lot of children,” Augram said, adding “others in that area expressed fear with his display.”

In an effort to make McVey look like he was impersonating law enforcement the news media has gone out of their way to refer to his "large" antennas on the back of his Grand Prix, a vehicle not known to be used by law enforcement.  The media went on to incriminate him for having had a police scanner, and the fact that he had a siren and strobe lights in his vehicle.  They make little effort to point out that this equipment is legitimately possessed by McVey, who has a history of using it for legitimate purposes, not impersonating police officers.

Amateur Radio operators are licensed by the FCC and regularly get involved in public service events to help the non-profit charity community by providing event communications.  The size of an antenna is relative to wave length of the RF signal, which is also relative to what frequency is being used to communicate.  However, McVey had LARGE antennas.  Evil large antennas, that were probably painted black like a rifle.

Listening to a police scanner is perfectly legal.  It is a very popular hobby that I myself have enjoyed since being a teenager, and it led to me becoming an Amateur Radio operator and getting involved in a number of high profile public service events in Northeast Ohio as well as a trustee with the Lake Erie Amateur Radio Association.  It's plausible that McVey heard local police chatter about the presidential motorcade and went to see the departing Air Force One take off - he was, in fact, among a group of other people doing just that at a fence line according to the Citizen Times article.

According to sensationalized reports out of North Carolina: "McVey had a previous brush with law enforcement in January when he was detained at gunpoint following a roadside argument in Ohio in which he was carrying a loaded sidearm" -- the "paint him like an extremist" media reports are going so far as to say that Ohio is revoking McVey's license to carry because of this January 2010 incident - which is anything but the truth since he didn't have a license when it occured.

Ohioans For Concealed Carry contacted the Sheriff's Office seeking the police reports that news media keeps referring to.  The intellectual dishonesty being displayed by the media would be shocking if it wasn't an outright effort to misrepresent the facts.  McVey, who happens to be a volunteer REACT member, was returning from a shooting session and came across what he believed to be a car accident due to the fact that one car was off the road, another was perpendicular to the road, and a man and a woman were on the side of the road.

What he actually came across was a domestic disturbance between the couple, and at one point during the encounter he armed himself with the firearm he had just been shooting at a range.  Some type of altercation occurred and McVey left the scene after notifying deputies of the situation.  Someone else called the Sheriff's office and advised "two men had been fighting and one armed with a gun is now fleeing the scene," leading to a traffic stop of McVey's vehicle.

The Coschocton County Sheriff's Deputy recognized McVey as a REACT member, and instead of jamming him up with charges for improper transportation they too did the unthinkable:  They advised him on the proper method to transport a firearm and sent him on his way.  The incident couldn't have been means to revoke McVey's Ohio Concealed handgun license because he didn't have one at that point in time, and subsequently qualified to obtain one.

However, the CCSO are in fact suspending McVey's license for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with McVey's prior Good Samaritan efforts.  Sheriff Rogers of the Coschocton County Sheriff's Office advised Ohioans For Concealed Carry that, contrary to these out of state media reports, McVey's license has been suspended because he has been incarcerated in North Carolina, which on it’s face sounded plausible.

Until we couldn’t find anything in the Ohio Revised Code to back it up for this story.

We wrote Sheriff Rogers, the President of the Buckeye State Sheriff’s Association, asking what section of law they were suspending McVey’s license under to make this story accurate – we believed they were doing something right, and to our surprise Bob Cornwell, executive director of the Buckeye State Sheriff’s Association wrote me back instead stating that Ohio Revised Code 2923.128 authorizes suspension:

“Since Mr. McVey has been arrested in another state involving the carry of his firearm the Sheriff has sent a letter notifying Mr. McVey that his CCW license has been suspended pending the outcome of pending charges against McVey”

Although there is language in ORC 2923.128 authorizing suspensions and revocation of a license for violations of Ohio laws, we remain convinced that there is no law in Ohio that authorizes nor requires a Sheriff to suspend or revoke a license for a misdemeanor arrest of a concealed handgun licensee in another state.

Neither Sheriff Rogers nor Cornwell had written us back by the end of the day, leaving us to wonder if McVey's suspension / revocation is appropriate.  McVey may find himself having to appeal the Sheriff's decision upon returning from North Carolina.

Joseph McVey hasn’t broken a single law and law enforcement in two states has gone out of its way to make sure he doesn’t do it again.