Gun-toting woman divides community

[onehandle]

Source: Philly

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



Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20081212_Gun-toting_woman_divides_community.html

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Add me to the list of namecallers on an Internet forum.

This woman is nuts.

[randr]

1. Obvious overdose of NRA coolaid.

[DonEBrook]

3. Some people want the Bill of Rights to end after the First Amendment.

:grr:

[jpak]

2. Someone gets a red card...then someone takes a bullet...

Idiot

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. Just another poster child for the loony right, most likely.

I can already see the usual suspects running to her defense.

[Lautremont]

5. Almost the scariest part is the beginning where it describes her morning routine.

"Oh - just gotta run upstairs and get my fuckin' Glock! Where'd I keep that thang? Bedside table? Closet? Kids' room?"

[dugaresa]

6. she is screaming "pay attention to me" by her actions and then shocked

that she got some attention but not the kind she wanted.

She is feeling isolated? Duh!

I know folks who have conceal and carry permits but they are either in law enforcement or security and they don't want everyone to know they have a gun which is why it is concealed. When they don't have to have it, they don't take it with them.

This woman is walking around with what I suspect is a loaded handgun strapped visibly to her hip and she is shocked by people's reactions?

Now let us think about this, she wears this to a soccer match..for what? Because she suspects Osama Bin Laden will bring one of his kids to the match and she wants to be ready just in case?

[Joe Steel]

7. A Dangerously Unstable Person

What could she possibly think was so threatening she couldn't go anywhere without a gun? Clearly, whatever she thinks she knows about the real world is dangerously far from the way it really is. Nowhere in America is so unsafe someone needs a gun to go everywhere.

[L0oniX]

8. I need to take my gun to Walmart to protect myself from people who trample others to death.

You need a gun for protection because of Xmas.

:evilgrin:

[notadmblnd]

9. I can't imagine living in the sort of fear this woman must.

I have a friend that is a retired police officer. He carries his gun everywhere he goes too. I've basically told him that I've managed to navigate the mean streets of Detroit for 50 years without one and have managed to survive. And I'm just a lowly woman. I've made so much fun of him and have teased him about being afraid that when we go out, he no longer brings it.

[HopeHoops]

10. When the original story hit, the paper had a picture of her kid with her hand on the gun!

This is not a joke. The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, PA has covered this since the beginning. After her concealed weapon permit was suspended, she made a point of showing up to the games with the gun on her hip, just as it is now. The picture the paper ran showed her kid hugging her with her hand on the gun. That holster doesn't even have a restraint strap and I wouldn't expect this woman to have the common sense to set the safety!

I can't imagine any parent trusting her to sit for their child knowing there is a loaded gun within reach of the children. On a positive note, the Patriot-News recently reported that the Brady Center has offered to fund the legal defense to fight her lawsuit. Spend away, Hain, just spend away...

[raystorm7]

11. Only a matter of time before the gun kills a family memeber than it ever would a criminal =/

[geckosfeet]

12. There is one shallow gene pool.

[Bunny]

13. The picture confuses me. If it was a guy, I could make the usual sarcastic crack

about the size of his dick and the need for a penis extension. But this is a woman, so I have to conclude that she's just a simple moron. My kid used to be on a soccer team, and I never really felt frightened. Bored out of my mind, but not scared. :eyes:

[Richard Steele]

14. She's a loon. Over 50% of my family in PA carry sidearms, & none ever attract attention.

This lady seems to demand attention everywhere she goes...
and now she's filed suit against the county?

She carries a pistol in an area where it's ORDINARY
to carry a pistol, where hundreds of folks carry a pistol...
and she somehow manages to generate more negative publicity
than if she was carrying a pistol whilst taking a dump on the
Shroud of Turin.

Carrying a pistol is NOT controversial where she lives;
the controversy comes from HER, not her pistol.

She's a fucking loon, end of story.