Gun-toting woman divides community

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http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/new...toting_woman_divides_community.html?viewAll=y

Gun-toting woman divides community

By Kathy Boccella

Inquirer Staff Writer
LEBANON, Pa. - Before heading out the door to go to Wal-Mart, Meleanie Hain fussed over her children, grabbed her coat and keys, then ran upstairs to get one more item: her loaded Glock 26, which she strapped to her hip.

She never leaves home without it.

Hain, 30, has caused a stir in this rural Pennsylvania Dutch community 25 miles east of Harrisburg for packing a gun everywhere she goes, including to her 5-year-old daughter's soccer games this fall.

She's paid a big price for sticking to her gun.

The mother of four, who often carries a baby on one hip and her Glock on the other, has been criticized by even the most ardent gun-lovers. From once-friendly neighbors to the local police chief, the general feeling is that Hain's pistol-packing behavior is, well, extreme.

"People get alarmed because they don't see that too often," said Charlie Jones, a soccer coach who confronted Hain about the gun at a Sept. 11 game. "They don't know what your intentions are going to be."

Hain said the outcry has hurt her babysitting business and left her feeling isolated. She has been called an attention-seeker, psycho, moron and worse on hundreds of pages on Internet forums. Neighbors have blasted her on radio shows, her daughter's principal warned her against taking the gun to school (she doesn't), and the local police chief advised her to put it away.

Now she is firing back. On Oct. 24, Hain filed a federal lawsuit against Lebanon County and Mike DeLeo, the sheriff who revoked her gun permit after jittery parents complained about her at the Sept. 11 game.

The suit says they violated her constitutional and civil rights and seeks more than $1 million.

"The sheriff got on TV after the hearing and said, 'I stand by my decision,' " said Hain, who grew up in Lancaster County in a family that did not own guns. "That comment makes people think I'm still an idiot and what he did was right."

DeLeo, who calls himself a staunch NRA member, said he has nothing against guns but felt it was his duty to take action "because of the safety and security issues involving [children] on the field."

Last week, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence offered to defend DeLeo and the county for free.

"This is a case that calls out for common sense and sanity," said Daniel Vice, the center's senior attorney. "It's an incredible risk to bring a loaded semi-automatic weapon to a children's soccer game."

No one disputes Hain's right to own a gun. Many of her critics are hunters. But they say that packing heat at a soccer game - or anywhere else around children - is dangerous and foolhardy.

In Pennsylvania, gun owners are allowed to carry weapons in the open as Hain does, but need a permit to conceal them in a pocket, purse or car. So without a permit, Hain could still carry a gun at the game but couldn't take it in the car to get there.

Even Judge Robert J. Eby, who restored her permit on Oct. 14, said he thought she lacked good judgment and common sense.

"You scared the devil out of some other people," Eby said.

He chided her for causing anxiety and apprehension in other people and said he didn't think anyone needed gun protection at a 5-year-old's soccer game. Concealing it "would be the right thing to do," he said.

Hain, who has children ages 1, 5 and 9 and a 9-year-old stepdaughter, says a near-fatal car accident 21/2 years ago destroyed her sense of security and convinced her that the worst can happen.

"I thought, 'What more can I do to ensure the safety of myself and my children?' " she said. "It's not a matter of being paranoid. People have smoke detectors and fire extinguishers in their homes. They're not paranoid; they're prepared."

Articulate and well-versed in gun laws, she is a vegetarian and Krishna follower with a Sanskrit symbol tattooed on her forearm, though she calls herself a "pseudo-devotee." Her husband, who taught her to shoot, works in law enforcement but stays out of the fray, fearing it will cost him his job. She won't say where he works and in fact, he sat in his car while a reporter and photographer were in his house with Hain.

Her babysitting business has suffered. Two babysitting clients have fled and she is down to just one family. Michael Long - who leaves Tyler, 2, and Joshawa, 8, with Hain one day a week - said he doesn't worry because she locks up her gun when the children are in the house.

"I can see where she's coming from," he said, scooping up Tyler in Hain's living room, which was filled with toys. In a large crate in the kitchen was Ghost, an enormous bull mastiff.

Others, though, say they can't understand why she feels so threatened.

"I said, 'Kids are more in danger of falling off a piece of playground equipment or getting hit by a car in the parking lot than anybody coming and doing anything where you need a gun to defend yourself,' " Jones said.

But Hain sees danger lurking around every corner.

She carries the weapon cowboy-style because in an emergency - not that there has ever been one - "I don't really need anything extra in the way of the gun if I'm going to have to pull it out and I'm holding a baby and trying to shuttle two or three other kids," she said.

And she doesn't want to have to wait for help to arrive. "When seconds count," she said, "the police are minutes away."

DeLeo said he had rarely seen anyone other than a police officer walk around with a gun on the hip. In fact, doing so might make Hain more of a target, he said.

"If you carry it open, you already lost the element of surprise," he said.

Moreover, it increases the change of accidental shootings, Vice of the Brady Center said. And a child could easily grab it.

"Semiautomatic weapons are made so that even young children can fire them," he said.

At Wal-Mart, Hain zipped through the aisles like any other busy mother, except she had a Glock on her hip instead of a cell phone. The last time she was in the store, a woman complained about the gun to a manager who asked Hain to leave. She explained that she was legally entitled to carry the gun and marched back into the store.

On this trip, few people seemed to notice the gun as she filled her cart with Pokémon cards, jeans and diapers. Then in the milk aisle, a man and woman approached.

"Thank you for standing up for yourself," said John Stegall, who said he recognized her from the newspaper.

After they left, Hain, ever vigilant, said she had noticed them looking at her and wondered whether they were going to cause trouble.

"People who carry pay a lot of attention to what's going on around them," she said.

Hain has thought about becoming a cop, but friends told her that nobody would hire her because "she makes waves," she said.

But as she checked out, a young cashier asked whether she was a police officer.

"No, it's for self-defense," she said as she loaded her cart. "Do you know how many crimes have taken place in Wal-Mart parking lots?"

Contact staff writer Kathy Boccella at 610-313-8123 or [email protected]
 
I agree 100%, but with the kids around I would absolutly carry concealed (though I always do, but if I were in her shoes).

I know when I was young (5-6), I made every effort to get my hands on anything I saw my father using, holding, carrying etc. 9 times out of 10 I did, his wallet, pager, badge, car keys - you name it I was into it. From his pockets, from my parents bedroom, his office.

At the same time, I probably didnt even know we had guns in the house until I was 12 or so, when he started teaching me gun saftey, and how to shoot with a pellet gun.

I just think Id feel much more comfortable having it with me, unbenownst to anyone else.
 
I agree 100%, but with the kids around I would absolutly carry concealed (though I always do, but if I were in her shoes).

I know when I was young (5-6), I made every effort to get my hands on anything I saw my father using, holding, carrying etc. 9 times out of 10 I did, his wallet, pager, badge, car keys - you name it I was into it. From his pockets, from my parents bedroom, his office.

At the same time, I probably didnt even know we had guns in the house until I was 12 or so, when he started teaching me gun saftey, and how to shoot with a pellet gun.

I just think Id feel much more comfortable having it with me, unbenownst to anyone else.
It has nothing to do with how you feel. It is her right and she is expressing it. LEOs carry daily without anyone around them getting ahold of their firearm, so why can't she?


It's called a retention holster btw...
 
Personal preference has everything to do with how a person feels. Perhaps I should have clarified when I said "I agree 100%". I meant I agree that she is within her rights, agree with her fighting the situation and also agree with wahsben's comment.

All I was saying is that I personally would be more comfortable CCing in those situations.
 
Moreover, it increases the change of accidental shootings, Vice of the Brady Center said. And a child could easily grab it.

Do the bradys think that police officers shouldn't carry a gun because a child could easily grab it?
 
Well, an interesting case! Here in Massachusetts, where your "right" to carry is purely at the discretion of the police chief's opinion, you would be crazy to stir up the local community like she is doing. However, she is not doing anything illegal. I am sure that people also cringed when Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery that fateful day! Sometimes it takes some seemingly outlandish behavior to solidify our rights for future generations.

We have been blessed with no terrorist attacks on our soil since 9/11. But all it would take would be one attack on our soil where innocent civilians are murdered to quickly change the opinion of the general populace about open carry. Lets just hope some politician does not deal our rights away the day before we really need them!
 
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Personal preference has everything to do with how a person feels. Perhaps I should have clarified when I said "I agree 100%". I meant I agree that she is within her rights, agree with her fighting the situation and also agree with wahsben's comment.

All I was saying is that I personally would be more comfortable CCing in those situations.
Thankyou for clarifying. To be honest though, our preferences have little to do with this woman and her current perdicament. I would prefer concealed carry as well, I just don't feel my opinion or preference is relevant in this case.
 
I think this woman is a flaming moron.

Keep waving your rights around to piss people off and watch them be voted and legislated out of existence.

Her reasons for carrying openly in a major suburban area with a large population of Filthydelphia libtards are lame beyond belief. If she needs to carry openly to get to her heater quickly she needs a hell of a lot more training.

This is not 1878.

The Sheriff is a tool, also.
 
I think this woman is a flaming moron.

Keep waving your rights around to piss people off and watch them be voted and legislated out of existence.

Her reasons for carrying openly in a major suburban area with a large population of Filthydelphia libtards are lame beyond belief. If she needs to carry openly to get to her heater quickly she needs a hell of a lot more training.

This is not 1878.

The Sheriff is a tool, also.
Yea, and keep exercising your rights out of view from the majority of the public and when it comes time to vote against those rights they'll see no reason to keep them.
 
+1 for being able to carry on a civil conversation NWanner - nothings more annoying than being flamed by someone who cant/wont see both sides of the picture!

She is in the right for sure but that is the difference between her town and some of our towns. If you were walking in many cities in Mass with your gun at the hip,you would more than likely increase your chances of having to use that firearm. I see thugs jumping people for shoes and sports jersey's. I would imagine a gun would be high on that list. It would make her a target. Concealed is the way to go IMO. I see little need to carry a gun out in the open at a kids soccer game although she lawfully able to. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
 
I think this woman is a flaming moron.

Keep waving your rights around to piss people off and watch them be voted and legislated out of existence.

Her reasons for carrying openly in a major suburban area with a large population of Filthydelphia libtards are lame beyond belief. If she needs to carry openly to get to her heater quickly she needs a hell of a lot more training.

This is not 1878.

The Sheriff is a tool, also.

Aside from the flaming moron remark I agree with you.

It wouldn't bother me to see mothers or fathers at school sporting events with M4's or AK's (like the parent volunteers who help protect schools in Israel do). It's their right, and the most protection I've ever seen at local school sporting events is the occasional detail cop.

I fully support people being allowed to carry anywhere, especially at schools, especially parents who're bringing their kids to an environment that leaves them completely undefended.

Schools aren't gun-free zones unless they have electrified razor-wire fences, metal detectors and airport style searches, and even then it's not impossible to get a gun in there.

But again, with Obama in office and the mainstream media chanting that he's finally going to give us some "common sense gun laws," and the obvious sensitivity about guns in schools post-Columbine/Virginia Tech/Jonesboro/etc., I think she went about this the wrong way.

I'll gladly support one's right to carry openly or concealed, however you see fit. I think it's a bad idea personally, and in today's world it's a political statement more than anything else.

Be smart. I recently read on here someone saying that the people we need on our side isn't the Brady Campaign group, it's the people straddling the fence, the undecided ones. Anti's will be anti, but we need to educate and inform.

Our rights will be trampled if we don't fight for them, yes it's true. But I think Dick Heller has a much better chance of getting a gun law turned in our favor than Plaxico Burress does.
 
She is in the right for sure but that is the difference between her town and some of our towns. If you were walking in many cities in Mass with your gun at the hip,you would more than likely increase your chances of having to use that firearm. I see thugs jumping people for shoes and sports jersey's. I would imagine a gun would be high on that list. It would make her a target. Concealed is the way to go IMO. I see little need to carry a gun out in the open at a kids soccer game although she lawfully able to. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
There has been nothing to prove any of the statements you've made. From what I've heard from people who actually do OC, no one even notices half the time.
 
Yea, and keep exercising your rights out of view from the majority of the public and when it comes time to vote against those rights they'll see no reason to keep them.

Unlike this dumb woman, I exercise my right to keep and bear arms in a way that does not alienate the fence sitter, and rather help them come to our side.
 
I say good for her. She only started open carrying because they took her CCW permit away. Now they give it back and want her to conceal because some sheeple are getting scared. I think in the same situation I'd be inclined to do the same thing. Of course it's a non-issue here in Mass, as I'd have my "rights" stripped away in a heartbeat.
I usually despise lawsuits, but I hope she wins hers and the libtards have to pay for their stupidity. Just my .02
 
She only started open carrying because they took her CCW permit away. Now they give it back and want her to conceal because some sheeple are getting scared.
You have a deep reading comprehension problem.

Her license was wrongfully suspended BECAUSE her county sheriff did not like her carrying openly, not the other way around.
 
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I agree 100%, but with the kids around I would absolutly carry concealed (though I always do, but if I were in her shoes).

I know when I was young (5-6), I made every effort to get my hands on anything I saw my father using, holding, carrying etc. 9 times out of 10 I did, his wallet, pager, badge, car keys - you name it I was into it. From his pockets, from my parents bedroom, his office.

I was the same way, and that's when my dad told me 'if you're going to play with something, play with it right' and he showed me first hand how to use and respect firearms. Obviously, I wasnt strong enough to use the M1 he had, but he took me to the range and used it to split a 1" block of steel in half. Being a kid, and knowing that there's nothing harder than steel, I learned to respect them real fast.

Props to her, for sticking to her guns.
 
Use common sense. Most people are afraid of guns. Pushing this will result in laws being changed limiting 2nd Amendment rights.

While she is technically right the best compromise is for her to carry concealed at children's sporting events.

Get a Fanny Pack.

This statement from the Brady Center is alarming:

"Moreover, it increases the change of accidental shootings, Vice of the Brady Center said. And a child could easily grab it.
"Semiautomatic weapons are made so that even young children can fire them," he said."

That is just incorrect. It is my understanding that trigger pulls on semi autos are designed to be heavy to prevent small children from firing the gun. At least on double action pistols.
 
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I think more people should open carry. Guns need to be brought in to the main stream and we should not have to hide like villeins. Some comments on this site really make me feel that the gov and media reeducation program is working.
 
Reported and -1.

Every time you "share your opinion," you do so by intentionally and willfully insulting others.

NWanner is certainly not a "flaming moron." We're all here because of our 2A rights, and those of us who aren't hypocrites have no problem with the 1A (or the 3A, 4A, etc.), but learn to do so in a civil, productive manner.

If it was once, I'd think nothing of it; we all make mistakes (myself included!) but this isn't the first time. Or the second. Grow up, kid.

Another one with reading comprehension difficulties. Villeneuve has already corrected you so I won't bother.
 
The concept is simple:

Individuals are expected to follow the law even when it is inconvenient for them, or they disagree with the law. This woman is simply holding the government to the same standard.
 
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