The Pennsylvania Instant Check system, designed to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, worked perfectly when it blocked Aaron McKie, a sharp-shooter from the basketball-court wing, from becoming a gun shooter.

He is barred from owning a gun because of a protection-from-abuse (PFA) order against him.

It's just cuckoo that after 10 seasons in the NBA, McKie decided he now needs a gun - two, actually - to protect hearth and home in suburban Narberth.

The retired Sixer is charged with falsifying federal and state paperwork, necessary before buying a gun, by claiming he had no PFAs against him.

He did it twice, once on each form.

McKie's lawyer, Brian McMonagle, called it a simple error, an "honest mistake." Did the 35-year-old McKie just forget?

The PFA was issued Sept. 27. McKie tried to buy the guns in April, seven months later.

I sometimes forget things. I can be seen circling the newsroom searching for where I put down my coffee mug.

But forget a protection-from-abuse order? It would be like forgetting a divorce.

If a simple mistake, it carries a heavy penalty - up to nine years in jail. Ironically, had Mc-Kie waited until Sept. 27, when the PFA order expired, he could have bought both handguns legally.

By most accounts, including some minor experience I had with him during my gossip-column years, Temple alum McKie is a good guy. Even as I write that, I know good guys don't usually have PFAs against them. I've read published stories in which a former girlfriend made some serious claims of abuse against him. Even as I write that, I know claims are not always justified.

McKie will be the chum at a July 3 Montgomery County pre-trial hearing that will attract the media sharks that circled Andy Reid's dopey, drugged-out sons.

If McKie is held, a trial will follow. If he's found guilty, what should the sentence be?

He's charged with a felony that carries a maximum of seven years and a misdemeanor with a max of two.

Montgomery County D.A. Risa Vetri Ferman told me that her office will decide what sentence to seek following "a full assessment of the case and the defendant's background."

Illegally buying a gun is serious and should be treated seriously. I'd like to see straw buyers (who illegally buy guns for others, often criminals) get locked up for a long time.

But McKie went to a gun shop and filled out the forms. That works in his favor. He wasn't trying to buy a hot gun out of the trunk of a car.

Is nine years right?

Should we throw the book at the former Sixer for a technical crime?

We're not L.A. McKie won't be able to hand the judge an autographed basketball and get a celebrity "get out of jail free" card.

I'd impose a short jail term, as a wakeup call to McKie, and to send a message to others who might be tempted to buy a gun illegally. Since he wore No. 8 as a Sixer, I'd give him 8 months. Maybe three in the can and five under house arrest.

I'd permanently bar him from gun ownership. He's lost that right.

Then I'd sentence him to community service, sending him into schools and neighborhoods to talk to kids.

He could show off his basketball prowess to get their attention, then wise them up on the value of education and the peril of buying a gun you're not supposed to have.

Who knows better than he? *

E-mail stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977. For recent columns:

http://go.philly.com/byko.