Moon Township man says police stop over gun was unjust
<b>By Tom Fontaine, Times Staff</b>
Published: Saturday, June 20, 2009 11:32 PM EDT
<b>MOON TWP. —</b> A Moon Township man feels he was unjustly stopped by Moon police for openly carrying a holstered 9mm handgun on his hip while walking in the township Monday night.
“I open-carry almost everywhere I go, and I’ve never had this problem before, not once. The thing is, open-carrying isn’t a crime in and of itself,” said 21-year-old Eric McElearney.
McElearney is right, according to Moon Police Chief Leo McCarthy. Aside from a few exceptions, it’s legal to openly carry a registered firearm in Pennsylvania and no special permit is required to do so, as one is to carry a concealed weapon.
But McCarthy said McElearney’s account of what happened when police stopped and questioned him Monday night, which he posted on the message-board Web site Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association, was “grossly inaccurate, and I take exception to it.”
McELEARNEY’S ACCOUNT
According to the Web posting, which had generated 40 pages of comments as of Friday afternoon, McElearney was openly carrying a handgun while out for a walk around 10 p.m. Monday when “all of the sudden I have headlights blazing all around me.”
McElearney said he was surrounded by a dozen officers in six police cars, and eight officers pointed their guns at him after he was ordered to place his hands against a nearby tree. He said officers then disarmed him, frisked him and ran his name through a police database before ultimately returning his weapon and letting him go on his way.
When contacted Thursday, McElearney, who wasn’t cited in the incident, said he shouldn’t have been stopped by police because he “wasn’t doing anything wrong.” He would not say whether he intended to file a complaint against the department or sue.
DEPARTMENT’S ACCOUNT
McCarthy agreed that McElearney didn’t break the law, but he did not agree with McElearney’s story.
McCarthy said only five officers were working Monday night; two of them handled the McElearney stop, and the three others drove up to the scene as McElearney was walking away. He also said Moon officers travel alone in their cruisers, so there couldn’t have been a dozen officers in six cruisers.
“He’s got a real math problem or a real observation problem,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy also felt the stop was justified.
According to the report by officer Jonathan Fry, police received a call about a man carrying a gun in the area of Riders Way. When Fry saw McElearney, he was walking along Beaver Grade Road, near Lozer Road.
“As my headlights illuminated him further, I could clearly see a firearm holstered to the right side of his waistband area. Upon seeing me, (McElearney’s) pace quickened and he made an immediate left onto Lozer Drive, shielding his right side from my vision,” the report said.
“I shined my patrol car’s spotlight on him in order to see him clearly. (McElearney) did not turn around or react in any way … other than to increase his walking speed even more,” the report said.
Police said a quick background check showed McElearney’s gun was registered to him and he had a valid concealed-weapons permit. McElearney said he prefers to openly carry his gun “because of comfort and ease of access if I ever needed to access it.”
McCarthy said McElearney’s “furtive movements,” and the time of night, prompted police to stop him.
“You know what kind of society we live in these days. Almost every single week in Moon Township, we take illegal firearms off individuals. Moon Township is a great place, but it’s not Mayberry. We don’t know who we’re dealing with. I think we responded prudently. … we only briefly took his weapon off him,” McCarthy said.
“Did (McElearney) commit a crime? No. Could he sue and win? Yes, he could. But I’d rather be judged by 12 than carried by six. We didn’t mean this man any harm, and I don’t have any problem with people exercising their rights. But I’d like to see them exercise some common sense and honesty, too,” McCarthy said.
Tom Fontaine can be reached online at tfontaine@timesonline.com.
OPEN-CARRY LAW
In Pennsylvania, people 18 and older who aren’t prohibited from owning firearms are allowed to openly carry a handgun without a concealed-weapons permit except in vehicles, first-class cities and where prohibited specifically by law, such as court facilities, federal buildings, schools and airport terminals. Philadelphia is Pennsylvania’s only first-class city.
Private property owners or businesses have the right to prohibit open carrying of guns.
First person I’d shoot is the open carry guy 
:rolleyes:
