JOHN COSTELLO / Staff Photographer
Meleanie Hain at the day care she runs in Lebanon, Pa. The Glock 26 on her hip has put her at the center of a controversy in which she briefly lost her gun permit.
Gun-toting woman divides community
This story originally appeared Dec. 12. 2008.
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.
