Gun-toting woman divides community

[onehandle]

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.

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

[madinmaryland]

1. Why can't people just give a little on either side

:shrug:

Common frickin sense people!

[amdezurik]

2. yeah, why won't she?

she knows her behavior makes people nervous yet demands her needs be the primary concern of everyone around her. just selfish I guess...

[DCKit]

8. Attention Whore.

When I started reading, I was sure it was someone I know, but she lives 25 miles farther west.

[iverglas]

12. "needs"?

You're being a tad overly charitable there, I think.

"Right-wing political activism" would be the term you were looking for maybe?

[tburnsten]

21. Doesn't seem like a right-wing activism activity

Seems more like she carried her gun in a manner in accordance with local and state law.

[iverglas]

23. well, there is just no accounting

for how things seem to some. Is there?

[tburnsten]

24. Maybe anyone else could explain it then.

Or are you all alone in naming it "right-wing activism"?

[iverglas]

25. do see post 20

et seq.

[tburnsten]

27. So one person who open carries is a right wing nutball

How does that make a different person open carrying a right wing stunt?

[iverglas]

28. gosh, you're a tough audience, aren't you?

So one person who open carries is a right wing nutball
How does that make a different person open carrying a right wing stunt?

If only someone had said it did ...

If you drop something and it falls downward, and you repeat that five times, will you expect the sixth thing you drop to fall upwards?

[tburnsten]

30. You implied it repeatedly

You don't have to draw a picture book to get your point across. everyone here knows exactly what you meant, try to come out from behind your shield of lawyer-ese sometime.

[iverglas]

33. nope

I have never in my life implied that because person A is X, person B is Y.

I do make a habit of observing patterns in what I see, and not ignoring the evidence of things that I see in front of my nose.

[tburnsten]

34. You again are avoiding taking any meaningful stance. Good job.

[iverglas]

35. what are you talking about?

I have taken a very clear stance.

The entire gun-carrying movement in the US is the brainchild of the political right wing, and is a tactic being used by the political right wing to further its overall agenda.

That is what it is, and all it is.

How much clearer could a stance be?

The fact that some of the individuals involved in the activities in question may be nutbars, and others may be dupes, etc. etc., is not really relevant.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

18. I guess those nervous people should complain to the legislature.

[gorfle]

11. Dupe article

This was posted a couple of months back.

It's a classic reason for why you should always carry concealed. There is just very little good in advertising the fact that you are carrying a weapon. There is no benefit to alarming the people around you, there is no benefit to getting people who want to push your buttons to "see what you'll do", there is marginal benefit to alerting any would-be attackers that you are a higher threat to them than others around you.

There's just very little upside to the attention.

[rrneck]

3. If she could carry a sidearm concealed

it looks like she is trying to make some sort of point or garner attention. That makes me question her motives for having the gun and it would make me nervous if I were around someone like that who was armed.

[tburnsten]

22. She was following state and local laws

What more can you ask for?

[slackmaster]

4. "...they don't see that too often."?!?!?

Don't they have armed police officers in that town?

:crazy:

[onehandle]

6. If I'm not mistaken, that job comes with a uniform. nt

[slackmaster]

9. Yes, and...?

:shrug:

[iverglas]

13. oh my, such breathless disingenuousness

The uniform, and the firearm, come with PUBLIC OVERSIGHT.

Damn, that was hard to figure out.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

19. So then you would agree they should be used to seeing people with sidearms?

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. Well, hell, if I lived there, I'd carry openly too.

Never know when there's going to be an Amish uprising.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

17. I don't think I'd make fun of those children being murdered.

[jmg257]

7. From another article...

"LEBANON -- Officials in Pennsylvania have revoked a woman's concealed-weapons permit because other parents complained that she was carrying her loaded handgun at her daughter's soccer games.
...
And her lawyer -- Robert Magee -- says that while Pennsylvania requires a permit for a concealed firearm, it doesn't require a license to carry one openly except in Philadelphia. "


Since she had a concealed carry permit already, it would have been fine, & easy enough, for her to cover up, whether she legally needed to or not. Silly to piss the people off, since she could still carry and no one would really know.


I wonder if, since she lost the CC permit, does she HAVE to carry open now, can she, and does she?

[krispos42]

15. I belive that was the issue

She had a concealed permit and did carry concealed. I believe that some parents knew about it from other sources and complained, so the sheriff yanked her permit and she began open carrying to the soccer games instead.

[Mugweed]

10. It is legal to do so, but

who needs to be armed 24 hours a day in Lebanon, PA? I've lived out that way and there's nothing going on. The woman seems like a paranoid to me.

[raimius]

14. Nobody needs to be armed

...until something life-threatening happens.

There wasn't much going on in that Amish schoolhouse, until a guy walked in and started murdering people.
I don't expect to be stranded in a blizzard, have my car catch on fire, suffer more than minor injuries, have an oil leak, a coolant leak, a flat tire, or have my wiper fluid disappear, but I am prepared for all of those things and more.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

16. If it is legal then the legislature apparently thought someone may have needed it

I guess if the citizens don't like it they should complain to the legislature.

David

[JonQ]

32. It's her right to do so

the courts shouldn't be deciding if she really *needs* to be allowed to exercise her rights.

Sure that guy over there legally can vote, but does he really need to?

Sure those protesters have every right to say they're against the war, but should they really be doing it in public where some people may get offended?

Etc.

[iverglas]

36. it is my right to be a lying, cheating adulterer

who drives a monster SUV to buy a newspaper and wears blood diamonds and furnishes my home with rugs made by little children on another continent, and eats the livers of forcefed geese and wears shoes made in sweatshops.

Yup, it's my right to be a foul human being.

I'd still be a foul human being.

Just like the one under discussion here plainly is.

[Name removed]

37. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JonQ]

26. Protestors can be divise in a community

especially on particularly controversial issues.

Perhaps they should give a little and only practice their 1st amendment rights in private, away from public view, to avoid offending people.

I mean, our rights certainly don't trump everyone elses right to not have to see or hear anything they don't agree with.

[iverglas]

29. I wouldn't know

I mean, our rights certainly don't trump everyone elses right to not have to see or hear anything they don't agree with.

But you might want to find a discussion of that issue somewhere and join it.

[JonQ]

31. That seems to be your standard reply

just pretend that nothing anyone says has anything to do with the topic.

Get something new, you're boring me.