Authorities have confirmed that Meleanie Hain was killed by her husband [PA. Parole Officer Scott Hain], in a shooting witnessed online by her video chat partner.
Meleanie K. Hain
http://obits.lancasteronline.com/index.php?p=2404011
Meleanie K. Hain, 31, died Wednesday evening at her home in Lebanon.
Born in Lancaster, she was the daughter of Duane L. husband of Margaret Gillette of Virginia Beach, VA and Jenny Gestewitz wife of James Stanley of Lancaster. She was the wife of the late Scott E. Hain.
Meleanie had graduated from Hempfield High School in 1996, and had worked as a security guard for Indiantown Gap. She also operated her own daycare business, Home Away from Home Daycare. She was a member of the NRA and the PA Firearms Owners Association. Meleanie also raised and showed her champion bullmastiff, "Ghost in the Darkness."
She will be lovingly remembered by her children; Tyler Klufee, Azlyn Hain, Isabella Hain and Dharma Hain all of Lebanon, her parents, and her four brothers, Brandon Suchonick of Lebanon, Sean Gillette, Kyle Gillette and Cory Gillette all of Virginia Beach, VA, and her grandparents Ivan and Alberta Gillette of Mt. Joy, PA.
Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend her Life Celebration Service from Fred F. Groff Inc., 234 W. Orange St., Lancaster, PA on Tuesday at 3:00 PM. A private interment will be held for the family. The family will receive friends at Groff's on Tuesday from 1:00 PM until the time of services. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials may be sent in Meleanie's memory to the PA Firearms Owners Assoc., through their website at pafoa.org/support/donate. A memorial tribute fund for Meleanie's children will be established at Belco Community Credit Union, 201 Good Dr., Lancaster, PA 17603.
Fred F. Groff Inc.
[Picture from Meleanie's MySpace blog]
Murder of gun-toting soccer mom witnessed on Web
Kansas City News
Posted on Fri, Oct. 09, 2009 10:30 PM
By MARK SCOLFORO
The Associated Press
http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation/story/1500143.html
LEBANON, Pa. A soccer mom who was thrust into the national gun-rights debate after taking a loaded pistol to youth sports events was killed by her husband in a shooting witnessed online by her video chat partner, authorities said Friday.
Scott Hain fired several shots into his 30-year-old wife, Meleanie, while her video chat was active, police said. Scott Hain, 33, later killed himself in an upstairs bedroom.
Meleanie Hain’s loaded pistol was in a backpack hanging from the front door.
The couple’s three children — ages 2, 6 and 10 — were home just before the murder-suicide, but authorities stopped short of saying they were home at the time. The online friend heard a shot and screams and turned to see Scott Hain firing, they said.
He “observed Scott Hain standing over where Meleanie was and discharging a handgun several times,” Police Chief Daniel Wright said at a news conference. The man, who was described as a friend of both Scott and Meleanie Hain, called 911.
“He kept open his webcam episode. However, he heard nothing or saw nothing after that,” Wright said. The chat was apparently not recorded.
Meleanie Hain became a voice of the gun-rights movement last year when she fought for the right to carry a holstered pistol at her young daughter’s soccer games. Other parents complained, prompting a sheriff to revoke her concealed-weapons permit, a decision a judge later overturned.
“I’m just a soccer mom who has always openly carried (a firearm), and I’ve never had a problem before,” Meleanie Hain said last fall. “I don’t understand why this is happening to me.”
Scott Hain, a parole officer, owned the 9 mm handgun used to kill his wife. He then killed himself with a shotgun, authorities said after Friday’s autopsies.
Gun-toting soccer mom planned to leave husband
By Derrick Nunnally and Kathy Boccella
Posted on Fri, Oct. 9, 2009
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20091009_Gun-toting_soccer_mom_planned_to_leave_husband.html
LEBANON, Pa. - Amid the domestic stillness of just another evening at home, the Hain family's troubles exploded into homicide Wednesday with a mutual friend powerlessly looking on via the Internet.
Meleanie Hain, 31, a mother of three and latter-day national symbol of the gun rights movement for her insistence on openly carrying a loaded Glock handgun, was unarmed, in her kitchen, and idly Web-chatting with a family friend.
She was, her mother said, about to leave her husband, after the latest episode of their fight-and-reconciliation cycle had ended poorly, and Scott Hain, 33, was displeased.
"Scott was not a person to be by himself," said Jenny Stanley, of Lancaster, Meleanie Hain's mother.
Outside the Web camera's view, Scott Hain picked up a gun. By then, the chat partner, in a different Pennsylvania county, had let his attention wander over to the television.
Then, at what police would say later was 6:07 p.m., the online feed erupted with a gunshot and a scream, and the friend saw Scott Hain walk into view. He raised a handgun and fired several times, and the friend called 911.
By the time police arrived, Meleanie Hain was dead in the kitchen, and Scott Hain had used a shotgun to commit suicide in an upstairs bedroom.
Their three children, a neighbor said, had run from the house shouting, "Daddy shot Mommy!"
Although police today revealed new details from their investigation into the Wednesday night murder-suicide, they refused to say what the children saw.
"I believe those three children will have enough problems in their life," Lebanon Police Chief Daniel J. Wright said.
Wright did not release the footage from the Web camera, but he described the scene vividly.
Meleanie Hain, he said, was shot several times; Scott, once. Scott was found beside the shotgun he used to commit suicide, and his pocket contained the 9mm pistol, registered to him, with six bullets missing.
Six shell casings were found on the kitchen floor. Meleanie's 9mm pistol, with a full magazine and a bullet in the chamber, was in a backpack hanging from the front door.
Wright said that because the weapons were of the same caliber, only ballistics tests could confirm that Scott Hain used his own gun to shoot Meleanie. The tests, he said, could require months, if authorities decide to order them in a case in which there is no one alive to prosecute.
The murder-suicide happened more than a year after Meleanie Hain became a national figure for carrying her Glock 23 handgun to her 5-year-old daughter's preschool soccer game.
She had told interviewers that she feared unforeseen dangers in her quiet, rural community, about 80 miles west of Philadelphia and not far from Lancaster's Amish communities.
Instead, the danger arose from her decaying marriage, despite its veneer of domesticity. Wednesday, Scott had mowed the yard before coming inside and leveling his gun toward his wife.
"I think he was just devastated at the potential of losing his wife, and so he made it so she couldn't leave," said Stanley, who spent today calling friends and relatives with the sad news and making arrangements for her daughter's funeral.
Husband killed Pa. gun advocate during video chat
FOX 28- South Bend, IN
Posted: Oct 09, 2009 3:07 AM CDT Updated: Oct 09, 2009 4:07 PM CDT
By MARK SCOLFORO
Associated Press Writer
http://www.fox28.com/Global/story.asp?s=11285578&clienttype=printable
Police plan to release on Friday additional details about the final hours of a suburban mother who last year shocked other parents by openly carrying a loaded handgun at her daughter's youth soccer game and this week was found shot dead with her husband in an apparent murder-suicide.
Meleanie Hain, who ran a baby-sitting service and became a voice of the gun rights movement, and Scott Hain, a parole officer, were found dead Wednesday inside their home in Pennsylvania Dutch country, but their three children were unharmed.
Police Chief Daniel Wright said he planned to disclose more about the case following autopsies expected to be performed Friday.
The couple's children were at a nearby house when police arrived Wednesday night to answer 911 calls from neighbors, Wright said.
Meleanie Hain's mother, Jenny Stanley, told WGAL-TV that the children, ages 2, 6 and 10, were "hanging in there."
"I'm devastated," Stanley said. "I lost my daughter. I lost my best friend. The children lost their parents."
Neighbors said the Hains were not outgoing, and several said Meleanie Hain wore her holstered gun regularly when walking the dog or going to the grocery store. They said the children ran outside Wednesday night and reported that their father had shot their mother, but Wright declined to disclose what investigators have concluded about how the deaths occurred or what the children saw.
Aileen Fortna, who lives two doors away, said her husband noticed the two oldest children running past their house and crying. She watched as authorities removed the Hains' dead bodies overnight.
Fortna said the children told another neighbor that "daddy shot mommy." A police chaplain answered the door at that neighbor's home Thursday and declined to comment.
"I'm shocked at the whole thing," Fortna said. "I'm surprised she didn't defend herself."
Wright said more than one weapon was recovered from the home. He acknowledged reports that the couple might have been having marital difficulties.
Meleanie Hain, 31, had run a day care at her home, and children's toys remained scattered in the front yard Thursday. A car parked in the driveway bore a badge-shaped sticker that read "NRA law enforcement."
Hain made headlines in 2008 when she attended a soccer game of her daughter, then 5, at a park with a Glock handgun holstered on her hip in plain view.
Nine days later, the sheriff revoked her license to carry and conceal a gun, citing a state law that prohibits certain gun permits from being given to people whose characters and reputations make them dangers to public safety.
A county judge overturned that decision but questioned Hain's judgment and said she had "scared the devil" out of people at the Sept. 11, 2008, game.
Hain claimed the sheriff's actions destroyed her baby-sitting service, resulted in her children being harassed and made her feel ostracized by her neighbors in Lebanon, which has about 25,000 residents.
The Hains filed a federal lawsuit against Sheriff Michael DeLeo and the county, alleging he violated Meleanie Hain's constitutional rights and prosecuted her maliciously. The suit was pending when she died. Her attorney, Matthew Weisberg, said he hopes to continue the litigation.
Weisberg said Hain told him about six months ago she and her husband, who was 33, had separated and three months ago she wanted to pursue a protective order against him. He said she wanted to have her husband's name removed from the lawsuit but that never happened.
"Whether they'd reconciled in the last couple of months, I don't know," Weisberg said.
LEBANON, Pa. (AP) - A soccer mom who was thrust into the national gun-rights debate after taking a loaded pistol to youth sports events was killed by her husband in a shooting witnessed online by her video chat partner, authorities said Friday.
Scott Hain used his own gun to fire several shots into his 30-year-old wife, Meleanie, while her video chat was active and perhaps as she washed dishes in their kitchen, police said. Scott Hain, 33, later killed himself in an upstairs bedroom.
Meleanie Hain's loaded pistol - with a bullet ready in the chamber - was in a backpack hanging from the front door.
The couple's three young children were home just before the murder-suicide, but authorities stopped short of saying they were home at the time. The online friend heard a shot and screams and turned to see Scott Hain firing, they said.
He "observed Scott Hain standing over where Meleanie was and discharging a handgun several times," Lebanon Police Chief Daniel Wright said at a news conference. The man, who was described as a friend of both Scott and Meleanie Hain, called 911.
"He kept open his Web cam episode; however, he heard nothing or saw nothing after that," Wright said. The chat was apparently not recorded.
Meleanie Hain became a voice of the gun-rights movement last year when she fought for the right to carry a holstered pistol at her young daughter's soccer games. Other parents complained, prompting a sheriff to revoke her concealed-weapons permit, a decision a judge later overturned.
"I'm just a soccer mom who has always openly carried (a firearm), and I've never had a problem before," Hain said last fall. "I don't understand why this is happening to me."
The Hains later sued the sheriff who had revoked her gun permit. The $1 million suit, which claims they suffered emotional distress and lost customers for her home baby-sitting service, remains pending against Lebanon County Sheriff Michael DeLeo.
Scott Hain, a parole officer, owned the 9 mm handgun used to kill his wife. He then killed himself with a shotgun, authorities said after Friday's autopsies. Police found several handguns, a shotgun, two rifles and several hundred rounds of ammunition in their Lebanon home, as well as six spent shell casings in the kitchen.
Friends and neighbors told police the couple had been having marital problems, but police knew of no immediate cause of the violence. Scott Hain was living at the family home at the time, Wright said.
Their three children are ages 2, 6 and 10.
Neighbor Aileen Fortna has said the children told another neighbor that "daddy shot mommy."
The judge who restored Meleanie Hain's concealed-weapon permit last year questioned her judgment and said she had "scared the devil" out of other parents at the soccer field.
Gun advocate soccer mom shot in murder-suicide
Husband killed her during video chat with friend
The Spec
October 09, 2009
MARK SCOLFORO
http://www.thespec.com/News/article/650858
LEBANON, Pa. — A soccer mom who was thrust into the American gun-rights debate after taking a loaded pistol to youth sports events was killed by her husband in a shooting witnessed online by her video chat partner, authorities said Friday.
Scott Hain used his own gun to fire several shots into his 30-year-old wife, Meleanie, while her video chat was active and perhaps as she washed dishes in their kitchen, police said. Scott Hain, 33, later killed himself in an upstairs bedroom.
Meleanie Hain’s loaded pistol — with a bullet ready in the chamber — was in a backpack hanging from the front door.
The couple’s three young children were home just before the murder-suicide, but authorities stopped short of saying they were home at the time. The online friend heard a shot and screams and turned to see Scott Hain firing, they said.
He “observed Scott Hain standing over where Meleanie was and discharging a handgun several times,” Lebanon Police Chief Daniel Wright said at a news conference. The man, who was described as a friend of both Scott and Meleanie Hains, called emergency police dispatchers.
Meleanie Hain became a voice of the gun-rights movement last year when she fought for the right to carry a holstered pistol at her young daughter’s soccer games.
Other parents complained, prompting a sheriff to revoke her concealed-weapons permit, a decision a judge later overturned.
“I’m just a soccer mom who has always openly carried (a firearm), and I’ve never had a problem before,” Hain said last fall. “I don’t understand why this is happening to me.”
The Hains later sued the sheriff who had revoked her open-weapons permit. The $1 million suit, which claims they suffered emotional distress and lost customers for her home babysitting service, remains pending against Lebanon County Sheriff Michael DeLeo.
Scott Hain, a parole officer, owned the 9 mm handgun used to kill his wife. He then killed himself with a shotgun. Police found several handguns, a shotgun, two rifles and several hundred rounds of ammunition in their Lebanon home.
Friends and neighbours told police the couple had been having marital problems.
However, Scott Hain was living at the home at the time, Wright said.
Their three children are ages 2, 6 and 10.
Neighbour Aileen Fortna has said the children told another neighbour that “daddy shot mommy.”
Gun-Toting Soccer Mom's Autopsy Results Due
FOX News 29- Philadelphia
October 09, 2009
LEBANON, Pa. –
http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/local_news/100909_Gun_Toting_Soccer_Mom_Dies
Police plan to release on Friday additional details about the final hours of a suburban mother who last year shocked other parents by openly carrying a loaded handgun at her daughter's youth soccer game and this week was found shot dead with her husband in an apparent murder-suicide.
Meleanie Hain, who ran a baby-sitting service and became a voice of the gun rights movement, and Scott Hain, a parole officer, were found dead Wednesday inside their home in Pennsylvania Dutch country, but their three children were unharmed.
Police Chief Daniel Wright said he planned to disclose more about the case following autopsies expected to be performed Friday.
The couple's children were at a nearby house when police arrived Wednesday night to answer 911 calls from neighbors, Wright said.
Meleanie Hain's mother, Jenny Stanley, told WGAL-TV that the children, ages 2, 6 and 10, were "hanging in there."
"I'm devastated," Stanley said. "I lost my daughter. I lost my best friend. The children lost their parents."
Neighbors said the Hains were not outgoing, and several said Meleanie Hain wore her holstered gun regularly when walking the dog or going to the grocery store. They said the children ran outside Wednesday night and reported that their father had shot their mother, but Wright declined to disclose what investigators have concluded about how the deaths occurred or what the children saw.
Aileen Fortna, who lives two doors away, said her husband noticed the two oldest children running past their house and crying. She watched as authorities removed the Hains' dead bodies overnight.
Fortna said the children told another neighbor that "daddy shot mommy." A police chaplain answered the door at that neighbor's home Thursday and declined to comment.
"I'm shocked at the whole thing," Fortna said. "I'm surprised she didn't defend herself."
Wright said more than one weapon was recovered from the home. He acknowledged reports that the couple might have been having marital difficulties.
Meleanie Hain, 31, had run a day care at her home, and children's toys remained scattered in the front yard Thursday. A car parked in the driveway bore a badge-shaped sticker that read "NRA law enforcement."
Hain made headlines in 2008 when she attended a soccer game of her daughter, then 5, at a park with a Glock handgun holstered on her hip in plain view.
Nine days later, the sheriff revoked her license to carry and conceal a gun, citing a state law that prohibits certain gun permits from being given to people whose characters and reputations make them dangers to public safety.
A county judge overturned that decision but questioned Hain's judgment and said she had "scared the devil" out of people at the Sept. 11, 2008, game.
Hain claimed the sheriff's actions destroyed her baby-sitting service, resulted in her children being harassed and made her feel ostracized by her neighbors in Lebanon, which has about 25,000 residents.
The Hains filed a federal lawsuit against Sheriff Michael DeLeo and the county, alleging he violated Meleanie Hain's constitutional rights and prosecuted her maliciously. The suit was pending when she died. Her attorney, Matthew Weisberg, said he hopes to continue the litigation.
Weisberg said Hain told him about six months ago she and her husband, who was 33, had separated and three months ago she wanted to pursue a protective order against him. He said she wanted to have her husband's name removed from the lawsuit but that never happened.
"Whether they'd reconciled in the last couple of months, I don't know," Weisberg said.
Parole officer based in Reading dies in apparent murder-suicide with wife, a gun-rights activist
The Reading Eagle
The Associated Press
10/9/2009
http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=160653
A Lebanon mother of three who became a voice of the gun rights movement when she openly carried a loaded pistol to her daughter's soccer game was fatally shot along with her husband in an apparent murder-suicide in their home, authorities said Thursday.
Autopsies were planned today on Meleanie Hain, 31, and Scott Hain, 33, who was a state parole officer in Reading.
Both were pronounced dead Wednesday shortly after 8:30 p.m. in their brick home in Lebanon, officials said.
The couple's 10-year-old son and two daughters, ages 2 and 6, were home at the time, police said.
The older children ran outside and told neighbors that their father had shot their mother, neighbors said. The children are being cared for by neighbors and relatives.
Toys lay scattered across the corner lot Thursday in the tree-lined neighborhood where the family lived and where Meleanie ran a day care center.
Lebanon police released few details about the deaths, but said more information would be released today after the autopsies.
Police Chief Daniel Wright declined to disclose what investigators have concluded.
He said authorities recovered more than one weapon from the home and acknowledged reports that the couple might have been having marital difficulties.
"I'm not going to confirm that now, but I'm not going to dispute it either," Wright said.
Scott Hain had worked in Reading as a parole officer for the state since August 2008.
Meleanie Hain made headlines after she attended her then 5-year-old daughter's soccer game in a park on Sept. 11, 2008, with her pistol on her hip, upsetting other parents.
Shock and sadness
Friday, October 09, 2009
BY MONICA VON DOBENECK AND BARB MILLER mdobeneck@patriot-news.com
http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/125504340776250.xml&coll=1
Meleanie Hain became nationally known as a voice of the gun rights movement, but few of her neighbors knew much about the Lebanon woman who was shot to death, along with her husband Scott, in an apparent murder-suicide Wednesday evening.
Lebanon police chief Daniel Wright said he has been getting calls from media all over the country because of the fame Hain received last year when she openly carried a loaded handgun to her 5-year-old daughter's soccer game.
That event, and subsequent legal actions, drew the attention of the National Rifle Association and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, among many others.
Hain, who used the myspace moniker "shefearsnothing," said in a December interview that she carried her gun openly everywhere, including into Wal-Mart, because it was her constitutional right. She said it was easier to reach her gun quickly in case she was attacked.
Police are releasing few details about the deaths before an autopsy is performed today.
Wright said police were called to the location about 6:20 p.m., and called in the Lebanon County Emergency Services Unit, who waited outside about for an hour and a half, using a bullhorn to call into the house before entering and finding the two bodies on two different floors. Several neighbors were evacuated and others were asked to remain in their homes during the incident.
Several neighbors reported hearing the couple's three children, about 2, 6, and 10 years old, running from the house yelling, "Daddy shot Mommy."
When police arrived, the children were at a neighbor's house, Wright said. He believed Hain's mother was on her way to care for the children Thursday.
Neighbor Debbie Mise said it was heartbreaking watching police lead the couple's dog, a mastiff, out of the house. While the dog is usually lively and barks at everything, he seemed traumatized, his head drooping, she said.
Wright said police had never before been called to the Hains' home for a domestic dispute.
Meleanie Hain's lawyer, Matthew Weisberg, said he understood she was seeking a protection-from-abuse order against her husband sometime within the past month, but court officials said no PFAs had been filed.
Weisberg said Hain had contacted him four or five months ago about removing her husband's name from a lawsuit because they were estranged. When he first took the case, she talked lovingly about her husband, he said.
Mike Long, a neighbor, said Wednesday night near the crime scene that his 3-year-old son and 9-year-old stepson were Hain's last baby-sitting clients. Long said Meleanie seemed very level-headed, but he didn't know much about Scott, whom he described as quiet.
Long said Hain and her husband had been having marital difficulties during the last week, Scott had left for a few days and Meleanie didn't know where he was. She called Long to say she might not be able to baby-sit.
But Scott Hain was there when Long dropped off his son Monday, Long said.
"I felt tension in the house, but that might just be because I knew they had been having trouble," Long said.
Neighbors said Scott Hain was mowing the lawn Wednesday afternoon, just a few hours before the shootings. They said the Hains pretty much kept to themselves.
Debbie Mise said the neighbors had a block party a couple of years ago with food and games for the kids, but although Meleanie Hain was sitting on her porch with her children, none of them joined in.
Meleanie Hain did regularly attend her children's soccer games. Charles Jones, a Lebanon County public defender, was coaching the soccer game on Sept. 11, 2008, when some parents told him they were upset about the handgun Hain was carrying on her hip. Sheriff Michael DeLeo later revoked her concealed weapons permit.
At a subsequent court hearing in Lebanon, Jones said he was worried that children could get hold of the weapon or that Hain was carrying it because somebody was out to get her.
"That made it even more scary," he said at the time. "If you use that weapon in a crowded area with a lot of kids."
On Thursday, Jones called Wednesday's events a tragedy. "The thoughts and prayers of my family are with her children," he said.
At her hearing, Hain said she felt like more of a target because her husband was in law enforcement. Scott Hain was a corrections officer at the prison in Camp Hill from March 2000 until August 2008, when he left to become a parole officer in the state Board of Probation and Parole in Reading.
Meleanie Hain was a stay-at-home mother who earned extra money baby-sitting. In the federal lawsuit filed last November, Hain said she endured the ridicule of neighbors and lost baby-sitting jobs because of the sheriff's actions.
Weisberg said his first reaction to the news of their deaths was shock and sadness.
"The second was that it's the truest illustration of irony," he said.
Friends mourn death of gun-toting mom
Acquaintances say Meleanie Hain's death was a matter of domestic violence.
By JOHN LATIMER
Lebanon Daily News
Updated: 10/08/2009 11:26:07 PM EDT
http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_13516841?source=most_emailed
Friends and supporters of gun-rights advocate Meleanie Hain mourned her death Thursday.
Hain, who gained national notoriety a year ago when she wore a holstered handgun to her 5-year-old daughter's soccer game, and her husband, Scott Hain, were found shot to death inside their South Second Avenue home Wednesday night in an apparent murder-suicide.
Investigators have released few details about the circumstances that led to the shootings, but neighbors said the Hains' three children ran from the house screaming, "Daddy shot Mommy," shortly after 6 p.m. The children, all between the ages of 2 and 10, escaped unharmed and were staying with neighbors as of Thursday afternoon.
Lebanon police Chief Daniel Wright said he was awaiting results of Thursday's autopsy on the Hains before releasing more details about the incident. The only new information he provided was that the couple were found on separate floors of the split-level brick house in the quiet southside neighborhood.
Police were called to the Hain home shortly after the children escaped. Minutes later the Lebanon County Emergency Services Unit -- a specially trained tactical squad made up of officers from several municipal police departments -- and city police cordoned off the area and told neighbors to stay inside their homes.
Wright said the ESU responded quickly to the scene because it was already on a training mission.
Little transpired for the next two hours as police tried to establish contact with anyone in the house. At about 8:30 p.m., the ESU entered the home, where it found the Hains' bodies.
After last year's incident at the soccer match, the 31-year-old Hain became a spokeswoman for open-carry advocates who support the right to wear a loaded weapon in public, a practice she often employed and which is legal in Pennsylvania.
On Thursday, other open-carry advocates who knew Hain said her death was a matter of domestic violence and should not be used to argue against the Second Amendment rights she championed.
"If Meleanie had never taken the firearm to the soccer game, regretfully, what happened (Wednesday) still would have happened," said Rich Banks, founder of paopencarry.org, a Web site devoted to the open-carry issue.
Banks said he came to know Hain as a kind and generous person through her postings on the Web site's discussion forum under the name "Shefearsnothing."
"In the end, her actions were not the ones that harmed anyone else," Banks said. "Agree with her or not, she was a good person who never harmed a soul, and I just hope people remember that."
Banks said he spoke with Hain regularly and occasionally saw her at the organization's training exercises, shooting-range trips and social functions. It was common knowledge among her friends that she was having problems with her husband, he said.
"A lot of people were aware of her marital issues," Banks said. "She did stuff that she didn't completely trust his reaction to. It was not a secret by any means. She has been considering her options for some time."
Despite the marital discord, no one expected a violent outcome, Banks said.
"I don't think anyone could have prevented this outcome other than Meleanie," he said.
Despite rumors to the contrary, a check of county records showed that Hain had not applied for a protection-from-abuse order from her 33-year-old husband, who was a parole officer in Berks County.
Hain's friend, Greg Rotz, organized a show of support last October when she had a court hearing to get her gun permit returned after it was taken away by Sheriff Mike DeLeo following the soccer incident. He was devastated to hear the news of Hain's slaying.
"I just saw her this past Saturday at a birthday party of a friend that she attended as well," he said. "She seemed fine -- like her normal self, to me."
Rotz also was aware of her marital problems but said he didn't think it would lead to her death.
"Those of us who knew her a little bit knew things weren't perfect at home," he said.
Although he doesn't know many details of her death, Rotz said Hain may have been unarmed if she could have used her weapon.
"I'm very curious to know if she happened to have her weapon on her," he said. "If she didn't, and she would have, it might have made a difference."
johnlatimer@ldnews.com; 272-5611, ext. 149
Meleanie Hain's death continues upward trend in state's domestic violence
By DAVID WENNER, The Patriot-News
October 08, 2009, 10:08PM
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/10/meleanie_hains_death_continues.html
CHRIS KNIGHT, The Patriot-News/fileMeleanie Hain
Now Meleanie Hain, the pistol-packing soccer mom, is dead of a gunshot.
So is her husband, Scott, in a what police called an apparent murder-suicide.
As of Thursday night, police hadn’t said who the killer was.
One thing was certain: It was yet another domestic-violence death, and the continuation of a disturbing upward trend in Pennsylvania.
On Wednesday, authorities said Sherie Deardorf-Buck of Saville Twp., Perry County, was killed by her husband, Edward George Buck. He has been charged in her death.
In 2008, there were 144 domestic violence-related deaths in the state, up from 121 in 2007. This summer, there were 50 such deaths between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Advocates weren’t sure what to make of Meleanie Hain’s death.
“I have to say nothing surprises me. After twentysome years of chronicling incidents of domestic violence, we can no longer be surprised in this office,” said Judy Yupcavage of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Yupcavage knew Hain’s death would make national news. That’s because of the notoriety Hain received after openly carrying her gun at her child’s soccer game and then going to court after her gun permit was revoked.
Did Hain’s determination to carry a gun, which she said was for personal protection, spring from a fear of violence within her own home? Yupcavage wondered.
She was reluctant to speculate before the facts emerge.
She hoped the Hains don’t become the butt of jokes.
She said that if Meleanie Hain believed a gun made her safer, she was wrong. In homes where there’s domestic violence, a gun increases the chances an abused person will die, Yupcavage said.
“Sometimes, the presence of a gun is the difference between life and death. With a gun, there are no do-overs,” she said.
Gun-toting soccer mom and husband found shot dead
ABC NewsOctober 08, 2009Last Update: 8:36 pm
http://www.abc4.com/content/news/national/story/Gun-toting-soccer-mom-and-husband-found-shot-dead/cmkqhOQa6ESkcur17KWbDg.cspx 
LEBANON, Pa. (AP) — Police in Pennsylvania say they'll release more information about the shooting deaths of a soccer mom and her parole officer husband tomorrow after their autopsies.
Melanie Hain became a voice of the gun-rights movement when she openly carried a loaded pistol to her daughter's soccer game in 2008.
Her body and that of her husband Scott Hain were found Wednesday at their home in Pennsylvania Dutch country. Police believe it was a murder-suicide.
Neighbors say the children, ages two, six and 10, ran outside and said their father had shot their mother. But Lebanon City Police Chief Daniel Wright isn't saying how the deaths occurred.
Wright did say more than one weapon was recovered from the home and acknowledged reports that the couple might have been having marital difficulties.
Soccer Mom, Husband Found Shot Dead
AP
posted: 10/08/09, 6:00pm
http://news.aol.com/article/gun-toting-soccer-mom-meleanie-hain/708665
LEBANON, Pa. (Oct. 8) - A mother of three who gained national notoriety after she openly carried a loaded handgun to her daughter's soccer game was shot dead along with her husband in what appeared to be a murder-suicide.
Meleanie Hain, 31, and Scott Hain 33, were pronounced dead shortly after 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at their 1 1/2-story brick home in Lebanon, a small city about 80 miles west of Philadelphia.
The couple's three children were home at the time but weren't hurt, police told the Patriot-News in Harrisburg. They were taken to stay with friends and relatives.
Jim Zengerle, Lebanon Daily News / AP
Meleanie Hain, who was found dead of a gunshot wound on Wednesday, gained national attention after she brought a loaded handgun to her daughter's soccer game.
Some neighbors told the Lebanon Daily News they heard or saw the children — a 10-year-old boy and girls aged 2 and 6 — running from the house and screaming "Daddy shot Mommy!" shortly before the 911 emergency center was alerted at 6:20 p.m.
Debbie Mise, who lives nearby, said she heard a strange sound following by the screams of the children.
"I heard something heavy drop or fall, and then right away I heard the kids screaming, but I thought they were playing," Mise said. "It was loud. But it didn't sound like a pop."
Lebanon Police Chief Daniel Wright said Thursday that the case is classified as a "death investigation" involving two adult victims, but that no one outside the home nor any of the children is suspected of killing the couple. Detectives were still at the scene late Thursday morning, he said.
Wright said he did not plan to release any additional information about the case until after Lebanon County Coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum conducts autopsies on Friday.
Details about the shootings and what prompted the violence remained unclear Thursday morning.
Neighbor Mark Long said the Hains had been having marital problems for about a week. He said Scott Hain had left home on Tuesday, and Meleanie Hain didn't know where he was, but that he returned Wednesday.
Another neighbor, Brian Witmer, said he saw Scott Hain mowing his lawn around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.
"There was nothing out of the ordinary," he said. "He didn't seem strange at all."
Scott Hain worked as a parole officer in neighboring Berks County, the News reported. He was formerly a guard at the Camp Hill state prison, according to the newspaper.
Meleanie Hain made headlines after she attended her then 5-year-old daughter's soccer game in a park on Sept. 11, 2008, with her 9mm Glock pistol in plain view holstered on her hip, upsetting other parents.
The county sheriff, Michael DeLeo, revoked her gun-carrying permit nine days later.
Hain successfully appealed the permit revocation, although the judge who restored the permit questioned her judgment and said she had "scared the devil" out of other people at the game.
Hain sued DeLeo in federal court, alleging that he violated her constitutional rights and prosecuted her maliciously when he took the permit away. She said that because of his actions her baby-sitting service had suffered, her children had been harassed and she had been ostracized by her neighbors in Lebanon, which has about 25,000 residents.
DeLeo said at Hain's appeal that he revoked her permit after fielding the parents' complaints. He said he based his decision on a state law that prohibits certain gun permits from being given to anyone whose character and reputation make him or her a danger to public safety.
After Hain sued DeLeo, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which says it tries to reform the gun industry through sensible regulations, offered to defend him for free.
"It is a case that calls out for common sense," Brady Center attorney Daniel Vice said then. "It's ridiculous to bring a gun to a child's soccer game."
A court hearing on Hain's $1 million lawsuit was postponed in May after an attorney in the case was involved in a traffic accident.
—
Information from: The Patriot-News, http://www.pennlive.com/patriotnews
Husband allegedly shot gun-toting soccer mom
Thursday, October 8, 2009
The Mercury
By Mark Scolforo, Associated Press Writer
http://www.pottsmerc.com/articles/2009/10/08/news/doc4ace38d839a23925256755.txt
LEBANON (AP) — A mother of three who became a voice of the gun-rights movement when she openly carried a loaded pistol to her daughter's soccer game was fatally shot along with her husband, a parole officer and former prison guard who worked in Reading, in an apparent murder-suicide at their home.
Autopsies were planned Friday for Meleanie Hain, 31, and Scott Hain, 33, who were pronounced dead shortly after 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at their brick home in this small city about 80 miles west of Philadelphia.
The couple's 10-year-old son and daughters, ages 2 and 6, were home at the time, police said. The two older children ran outside and told neighbors that their father had shot their mother, neighbors said. The children are being cared for by neighbors and relatives.
Toys lay scattered across the corner lot Thursday in the tree-lined neighborhood where the family lived and where Meleanie ran a day care center. A car parked in the driveway bore a badge-shaped sticker that read "NRA law enforcement."
Scott Hain had worked in Reading as a parole officer for the state Board of Probation and Parole since August 2008. He previously was a guard at the Camp Hill state prison, the state Corrections Department said.
Neighbor Mark Long told The Patriot-News in Harrisburg that Meleanie Hain had baby-sat for his 3-year-old son and that the couple had been having marital problems for about a week.
Neighbor Aileen Fortna, 51, told The Associated Press that her husband noticed the two older Hain children running past their house and crying. She said the children told another neighbor that "daddy shot mommy."
Meleanie Hain always carried her holstered 9 mm Glock pistol, even to the grocery store, and was holding a rifle while she talked to someone outside her house last week, Fortna said.
"I'm shocked at the whole thing," Fortna said. "I'm surprised she didn't defend herself."
Lebanon remained tightlipped Thursday, with Chief Daniel Wright saying only that the case was classified as a "death investigation" and that no one outside the home, or any of the children, is suspected of killing the couple.
Mike Witmer, a 32-year-old maintenance technician who lives across the street and about 50 yards from the Hains, said he was unloading groceries when he heard a commotion at their house. Shortly afterward, police swarmed through the neighborhood and told him to go inside.
"I'm pretty sure what we heard was the bang of the gun. It was a weird sound," he said, expressing concern for the children. "I hope they're OK and they get through the hard times they're in for the rest of their lives.
"I'm a big hunter, and I support gun rights and I own guns," he said. "I just think sometimes guns get into the hands of the wrong people and tragedies happen."
Meleanie Hain made headlines after she attended her then 5-year-old daughter's soccer game in a park on Sept. 11, 2008, with her Glock holstered on her hip in plain view, upsetting other parents. The county sheriff, Michael DeLeo, revoked her gun-carrying permit nine days later.
Hain successfully appealed the permit revocation; although, the judge who restored the permit questioned her judgment and said she had "scared the devil" out of people.
Hain sued DeLeo in federal court, alleging that he violated her constitutional rights and prosecuted her maliciously when he took the permit away. She said that because of his actions her baby-sitting service had suffered, her children had been harassed and she had been ostracized by her neighbors in Lebanon, which has about 25,000 residents.
DeLeo said at Hain's appeal that he revoked her permit after fielding the parents' complaints. He said he based his decision on a state law that prohibits certain gun permits from being given to people whose character and reputation make them a danger to public safety.
After Hain sued DeLeo, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which says it tries to reform the gun industry through sensible regulations, offered to defend him for free.
"It is a case that calls out for common sense," Brady Center attorney Daniel Vice said then. "It's ridiculous to bring a gun to a child's soccer game."
Neighbor Debbie Mise said she was saddened by the sight of police leading the family's mastiff dog out of the house.
"When he came out, his poor head hung to the ground," she said. "My heart went out to that dog."
Pistol-packin' soccer mom shot dead in Lebanon
The Lebanon Daily
By JOHN LATIMER
Staff Writer
Updated: 10/08/2009 04:23:46 PM EDT
http://www.ldnews.com/ci_13506791
Meleanie Hain sports a holstered Glock at her daughter's soccer practice in September 2008. (Lebanon Daily News File Photo)
A Lebanon woman who gained national notoriety last year as a champion of Second Amendment rights after she brought her loaded handgun to her 5-year-old daughter's soccer game was shot and killed Wednesday night in an apparent murder-suicide.
Meleanie Hain, 31, and her husband, Scott Hain, 33, were pronounced dead by Lebanon County coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum shortly after 8:30 p.m. after a two-hour standoff with police outside their home at Second Avenue and East Grant Street. The episode ended quietly when police entered the house after trying to make contact with anyone inside.
No cause of death was announced, and autopsies were scheduled for today, said Yocum.
Lebanon police Chief Daniel Wright was guarded with information as detectives began the preliminary stages of the investigation late Wednesday night. He acknowledged that the Hains were both found dead and had suffered gunshot wounds inside their 1 ½-story brick home in a quiet neighborhood in Lebanon's southside. He would not provide any additional details, other than to say that police do not feel any other people were involved.
District Attorney David Arnold, who was at the scene, refused to comment.
Several neighbors said they heard or saw the couple's children run from the house screaming, "Daddy shot Mommy!" shortly before the 911 Center was called at 6:20 p.m.
The children, 2- and 6-year-old girls and a 10-year-old boy, were in the care of a neighbor and were unhurt, said Wright.
The Lebanon County Emergency Services Unit was quickly called to the scene and the neighborhood cordoned off.
The front door of the house was open, and light could be seen inside the living room. But all inside and around the house was quiet as members of the Lebanon police and tactical team, armed with rifles, took up positions.
Petra Bossler, who lives next to the Hain home on Grant Street, said she did not hear any commotion or gunfire from the Hain home. She learned something had happened only when police came to her door and asked to come inside so they could peer from her windows at the Hain house, which is just several feet away.
Debbie Mise, who lives on East Grant Street, three doors away from the Hains, said she heard a strange sound followed by the screams of the children, which she mistook for playing.
"I heard something heavy drop or fall, and then right away I heard the kids screaming, but I thought they were playing," she said. "It was loud. But it didn't sound like a pop."
Brian Witmer, who lives between Mise and Bossler said he saw Scott Hain mowing the lawn about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.
"He was mowing his lawn, and the dog was outside. There was nothing out of the ordinary. He didn't seem strange at all," he said.
Mise said she had a feeling something bad would eventually happen at the Hain home.
"She just wasn't right," Mise said of Meleanie Hain. "You don't bring a gun to a kids' soccer game, and you don't wear a gun when you go shopping at Kohl's."
Meleanie Hain was dubbed the pistol-packin' soccer mom by the media in September 2008after it was first reported in the Lebanon Daily News that she wore her holstered 9mm Glock pistol to her daughter's soccer match. She became a spokeswoman of sorts for open-carry advocates - who support the right to carry a gun in the open - after complaints caused county Sheriff Mike DeLeo to confiscate her concealed-weapon permit.
Hain appealed the action, and after a hearing DeLeo was ordered to return the permit.
Hain did not let the matter end there. She filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against DeLeo. That trial was awaiting scheduling in U.S. Middle District Court.
Meleanie Hain at last report operated a day-care center in her home.
Her husband was a parole officer in Berks County and a former prison guard at the State Correctional Institute in Camp Hill. He also had worked part-time for Lebanon County Central Booking.
johnlatimer@ldnews.com; 272-5611, ext. 149
In video, Meleanie Hain says she carried gun to protect from assault
By The Patriot-News
October 08, 2009, 4:02PM
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/10/in_video_meleanie_hain_says_sh.html
Meleanie Hain was thrust into the national spotlight when she took a gun, in plain view and holstered on her hip, to a children's soccer game Sept. 11, 2008, at Optimist Park in Lebanon, Pa.
Her permit to carry a gun was revoked by Lebanon County Sheriff Michael DeLeo on Sept. 20, 2008. DeLeo said Hain showed poor judgment in wearing her gun to the game.
Hain’s permit was reinstated by Lebanon County Judge Robert Eby on Oct. 14, 2008, but the judge asked her to conceal it when she goes to soccer games. Hain said she would continue to carry it openly under the Second Amendment.
Hain and her husband died last night in what police are calling a murder-suicide.
This video was made after the hearing. Also speaking, in the green shirt, is Rich Banks, president of Pennsylvania Open Carry.
In a question-and-answer session with The Patriot-News about the case, Hain said she carried a gun because she never knew when she might need it:
CHRIS KNIGHT, The Patriot-News/file. Gun owner Meleanie Hain, of Lebanon, had received national attention for taking a loaded gun to her daughter's soccer game. Hain was shot to death Wednesday night.
Q: How do you feel about all the publicity?
A: The antis [those who are anti-gun] are happy being antis just as I am happy being a gun owner. None of them posting questions and ridicule on the Internet forums have any intention of changing their views just as I have no intention of changing mine. ... I have read all sorts of slander, personal attacks, and even threats toward me, my family, and, yes, some specific to my children. The publicity surrounding me as a person makes me feel awkward and uncomfortable. As stated previously, I am willing to talk to the press because the issue is so important, but the focus on me, personally, has been difficult because it simply is not about me.
Q: Why did you carry a gun to the soccer game?
A: Like it or not, I do not have to validate myself to the public for my actions, ... I have come to the conclusion that this is an impossible task. It may sound arrogant, but ... the Constitution has guaranteed me a right, and there is nothing more to say about it. People who say, 'You do not need a gun at a soccer field,' ... I wonder if they could tell me when I will need it? That way I could just avoid that time and place.
Q: Did you ever consider not carrying at the soccer game just to make other parents feel better, even though it is your right?
A: I think this question would be better directed at the parents who were bothered by my choice to openly carry to the game in the form of, 'Did you ever consider that had you taken a different approach with Mrs. Hain that you may have yielded a different outcome, perhaps the one you desired from the start of all of this?'
Q: How is your family handling this?
A: My husband has been supportive all along. He has just kept himself out of the public eye because of the sensitive nature of his employment. My children are also in the know in what has been going on, and they are very supportive as well. My mom is very supportive. As for the rest of my family, I have never asked them if they are supportive, and they have never made it a point to tell me one way or the other. In previous conversations with them, I have come to the conclusion that they are not well educated about firearms and are basically anti-gun.
Q: Why did you decide to sue the sheriff?
A: Just the fact that he was wrong is evidenced by the fact that my license was restored to me. ... To think that people would know this and then question the lawsuit I am pursuing baffles me. I am a victim of Sheriff [Michael] DeLeo's. I am a victim of those in society as a direct result of his actions as well. The way people look at me sometimes when I am out running errands, I feel as if I am wearing a scarlet letter. and really, it's a Glock 26.
Q: Did you grow up with guns?
A: I did not grow up in a home with guns. ... I have been carrying for just about a year, although I did start learning about firearms, safe handling, and how to shoot more [than] 2 1/2 years ago. It was a long process as I wanted to do things in such a way that I felt I was ready to responsibly own and carry a firearm. No, I am not a hunter. ... That question cracks me up! I am a vegetarian.
Gun-toting soccer mom Meleanie Hain's neighbors say family was private
By MONICA VON DOBENECK, The Patriot-News
October 08, 2009, 3:50PM
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/10/gun-toting_soccer_mom_meleanie.html 
Gun-carrying soccer mom Meleanie Hain died with her husband, Scott, in what police are calling a murder-suicide. Hain, 31, and her husband, Scott, 33, were pronounced dead by Lebanon County Coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum shortly after 8:30 p.m. Wednesday in this home at Second Avenue and East Grant Street, Lebanon, police said.
Meleanie Hain may have been known throughout the country for her stance favoring gun rights, but few of her neighbors knew much about the Lebanon woman who was shot to death, along with her husband Scott, in an apparent murder-suicide Wednesday evening.
Neighbors said the Hains pretty much kept to themselves. Thomas Shaak said the Hains moved in eight or nine years ago, but he barely knew them, even though most of his other neighbors regularly talk to each other. He never heard them fighting, he said.
Police are releasing few details about the deaths before an autopsy is performed Friday. Lebanon police Chief Daniel Wright said police were called to the house about 6:20 p.m., and called in the Lebanon County Emergency Services Unit, the local SWAT team.
Immediate neighbors were evacuated, and other neighbors were told to remain in their homes. Police entered the Hains’ home after about an hour and a half and found the two bodies, one on the first floor and one on the second, according to Wright.
Meleanie and Scott Hain home
Several neighbors reported hearing the couple’s three children, ages 2, 6, and 10, running from the house yelling, “Daddy shot mommy.” When police arrived, the children were at a neighbor’s house, Wright said. He believed Hain’s mother was on her way today to care for the children.
Wright said police had never before been called to the Hains’ home for a domestic dispute.
Debbie Mise is a neighbor of the Hain family.
Neighbor Debbie Mise said she heard a weird noise Wednesday evening, but didn’t think it sounded like a gunshot. She then heard children screaming, but thought they were playing. When she heard sirens, she went outside, but police told her to stay in her home.
Mise said the neighbors had a block party a couple of years ago with food and games for the kids, but although Meleanie Hain was sitting in her porch with her children, none of them joined in.
Neighbor Aileen Fortna said Scott Hain had lived in the home before he and Meleanie married. Fortna said she was unaware of any marital difficulties the couple may have been having, and said Scott was there cutting the grass Tuesday.
CHRIS KNIGHT, The Patriot-News/file. Meleanie Hain
“She was friendly, but not very social. She’d say “hi” if you saw her,” Fortna said. “They kept to themselves — they were very private people.”
Meleanie Hain did regularly attend her children’s soccer games. Charlie Jones, a Lebanon County public defender and candidate for judge, was coaching Sept. 11, 2008, when some parents told him they were upset about the handgun Hain was carrying on her hip.
Lebanon County Sheriff Michael DeLeo revoked Hain’s permit to carry a concealed weapon after learning about the incident.
That event, and the subsequent legal actions, drew the attention of the National Rifle Association and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, among other groups.
Gun-toting Pa. soccer mom, husband found shot dead
The Times Leader- Northern PA
Thursday, October 8, 2009 3:03 pm
(AP)
http://www.timesleader.com/news/ap?articleID=2961237
Police are tight-lipped about the deaths of a south-central Pennsylvania woman and her husband.
Melanie Hain who gained national attention by openly carrying a handgun to her daughter's soccer game. She and her husband, Scott Hain, were both shot dead in their Lebanon home.
Lebanon Police Chief Daniel Wright says the case is classified as a "death investigation" and that no one outside the home, or any of the children, is suspected of killing the couple. Police say the couple's 10-year-old son and daughters ages 2 and 6 were home at the time.
Neighbors say the two older children ran outside and told neighbors that their father had shot their mother, but police aren't confirming that.
Gun-toting soccer mom, husband found shot dead
Published: Thursday, October 8, 2009 3:08 PM EDT
Indiana Gazette
http://online.indianagazette.com/articles/2009/10/08/news/region_and_state/10025431.txt
LEBANON, Pa. (AP) — A mother of three who gained national notoriety after she openly carried a loaded handgun to her daughter's soccer game was shot dead along with her husband in what appeared to be a murder-suicide.
Meleanie Hain, 31, and Scott Hain 33, were pronounced dead shortly after 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at their 1½-story brick home in Lebanon, a small city about 80 miles west of Philadelphia.
The couple's three children home at the time but weren't hurt, police told the Patriot-News in Harrisburg. They were taken to stay with friends and relatives.
Some neighbors told the Lebanon Daily News they heard or saw the children — a 10-year-old boy and girls aged 2 and 6 — running from the house and screaming ``Daddy shot Mommy!'' shortly before the 911 emergency center was alerted at 6:20 p.m.
Debbie Mise, who lives nearby, said she heard a strange sound following by the screams of the children.
``I heard something heavy drop or fall, and then right away I heard the kids screaming, but I thought they were playing,'' Mise said. ``It was loud. But it didn't sound like a pop.''
Lebanon Police Chief Daniel Wright said Thursday that the case is classified as a ``death investigation'' involving two adult victims, but that no one outside the home nor any of the children is suspected of killing the couple. Detectives were still at the scene late Thursday morning, he said.
Wright said he did not plan to release any additional information about the case until after Lebanon County Coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum conducts autopsies on Friday.
Details about the shootings and what prompted the violence remained unclear Thursday morning.
Neighbor Mark Long said the Hains had been having marital problems for about a week. He said Scott Hain had left home on Tuesday, and Meleanie Hain didn't know where he was, but that he returned Wednesday.
Another neighbor, Brian Witmer, said he saw Scott Hain mowing his lawn around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.
``There was nothing out of the ordinary,'' he said. ``He didn't seem strange at all.''
Scott Hain worked as a parole officer in neighboring Berks County, the News reported. He was formerly a guard at the Camp Hill state prison, according to the newspaper.
Meleanie Hain made headlines after she attended her then 5-year-old daughter's soccer game in a park on Sept. 11, 2008, with her 9mm Glock pistol in plain view holstered on her hip, upsetting other parents.
The county sheriff, Michael DeLeo, revoked her gun-carrying permit nine days later.
Hain successfully appealed the permit revocation, although the judge who restored the permit questioned her judgment and said she had ``scared the devil'' out of other people at the game.
Hain sued DeLeo in federal court, alleging that he violated her constitutional rights and prosecuted her maliciously when he took the permit away. She said that because of his actions her baby-sitting service had suffered, her children had been harassed and she had been ostracized by her neighbors in Lebanon, which has about 25,000 residents.
DeLeo said at Hain's appeal that he revoked her permit after fielding the parents' complaints. He said he based his decision on a state law that prohibits certain gun permits from being given to anyone whose character and reputation make him or her a danger to public safety.
After Hain sued DeLeo, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which says it tries to reform the gun industry through sensible regulations, offered to defend him for free.
``It is a case that calls out for common sense,'' Brady Center attorney Daniel Vice said then. ``It's ridiculous to bring a gun to a child's soccer game.''
A court hearing on Hain's $1 million lawsuit was postponed in May after an attorney in the case was involved in a traffic accident.
Information from: The Patriot-News, http://www.pennlive.com/patriotnews
Accidental Pa. gun activist and her husband shot dead in apparent murder-suicide
Gun-toting Pa. soccer mom, husband found shot dead
By MARK SCOLFORO
Associated Press
10/08/09
1:48PM
http://www.newser.com/article/d9b7386g1/accidental-pa-gun-activist-and-her-husband-shot-dead-in-apparent-murder-suicide.html
A mother of three who became a voice of the gun-rights movement when she openly carried a loaded pistol to her daughter's soccer game was fatally shot along with her husband, a parole officer and former prison guard, in an apparent murder-suicide at their home.
Autopsies were planned Friday for Meleanie Hain, 31, and Scott Hain, 33, who were pronounced dead shortly after 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at their brick home in this small city about 80 miles west of Philadelphia.
The couple's 10-year-old son and daughters ages 2 and 6 were home at the time, police said. The two older children ran outside and told neighbors that their father had shot their mother, neighbors said. The children are being cared for by neighbors and relatives.
Toys lay scattered across the corner lot Thursday in the tree-lined neighborhood where the family lived and where Meleanie ran a day care center. A car parked in the driveway bore a badge-shaped sticker that read "NRA law enforcement."
Scott Hain had worked in Reading as a parole officer for the state Board of Probation and Parole since August 2008. He previously was a guard at the Camp Hill state prison, the state Corrections Department said.
Neighbor Mark Long told The Patriot-News in Harrisburg that Meleanie Hain had baby-sat for his 3-year-old son and that the couple had been having marital problems for about a week.
Neighbor Aileen Fortna, 51, told The Associated Press that her husband noticed the two older Hain children running past their house and crying. She said the children told another neighbor that "daddy shot mommy."
Meleanie Hain always carried her holstered 9mm Glock pistol, even to the grocery store, and was holding a rifle while she talked to someone outside her house last week, Fortna said.
"I'm shocked at the whole thing," Fortna said. "I'm surprised she didn't defend herself."
Lebanon remained tightlipped Thursday, with Chief Daniel Wright saying only that the case was classified as a "death investigation" and that no one outside the home, or any of the children, is suspected of killing the couple.
Mike Witmer, a 32-year-old maintenance technician who lives across the street and about 50 yards from the Hains, said he was unloading groceries when he heard a commotion at their house. Shortly afterward, police swarmed through the neighborhood and told him to go inside.
"I'm pretty sure what we heard was the bang of the gun. It was a weird sound," he said, expressing concern for the children. "I hope they're OK and they get through the hard times they're in for the rest of their lives."
"I'm a big hunter, and I support gun rights and I own guns," he said. "I just think sometimes guns get into the hands of the wrong people and tragedies happen."
Meleanie Hain made headlines after she attended her then 5-year-old daughter's soccer game in a park on Sept. 11, 2008, with her Glock holstered on her hip in plain view, upsetting other parents.
The county sheriff, Michael DeLeo, revoked her gun-carrying permit nine days later.
Hain successfully appealed the permit revocation, although the judge who restored the permit questioned her judgment and said she had "scared the devil" out of people.
Hain sued DeLeo in federal court, alleging that he violated her constitutional rights and prosecuted her maliciously when he took the permit away. She said that because of his actions her baby-sitting service had suffered, her children had been harassed and she had been ostracized by her neighbors in Lebanon, which has about 25,000 residents.
DeLeo said at Hain's appeal that he revoked her permit after fielding the parents' complaints. He said he based his decision on a state law that prohibits certain gun permits from being given to people whose character and reputation make them a danger to public safety.
After Hain sued DeLeo, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which says it tries to reform the gun industry through sensible regulations, offered to defend him for free.
"It is a case that calls out for common sense," Brady Center attorney Daniel Vice said then. "It's ridiculous to bring a gun to a child's soccer game."
Neighbor Debbie Mise said she was saddened by the sight of police leading the family's mastiff dog out of the house.
"When he came out, his poor head hung to the ground," she said. "My heart went out to that dog."
Gun-toting Pa. soccer mom, husband found shot dead
10/8/2009, 1:30 a.m. ET The Associated Press
http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/national-69/12549912919900.xml&storylist=penn
(AP) — LEBANON, Pa. - A soccer mom who gained national attention when she openly carried a loaded gun to her 5-year-old daughter's game was shot dead Wednesday along with her husband in what appeared to be a murder-suicide, police said.
Meleanie Hain and Scott Hain were pronounced dead Wednesday night at their home in Lebanon, a small city about 80 miles west of Philadelphia.
The couple's three children were home at the time but weren't hurt, police said. They were taken to stay with friends and relatives.
Meleanie Hain, 31, and Scott Hain, 33, had been having marital problems for about a week, neighbor Mark Long said. Scott Hain had left the couple's home on Tuesday, and Meleanie Hain didn't know where he was, but he returned Wednesday, Long said.
Autopsies on the Hains were to be conducted Thursday, coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum said.
Meleanie Hain made headlines after she attended a children's soccer game in a park on Sept. 11, 2008, with a handgun in plain view holstered on her hip, upsetting other parents.
The county sheriff, Michael DeLeo, revoked her gun-carrying permit nine days later.
Hain successfully appealed the permit revocation, although the judge who restored the permit questioned her judgment and said she had "scared the devil" out of other people at the game.
Hain sued DeLeo in federal court, alleging that he violated her constitutional rights and prosecuted her maliciously when he took the permit away. She said that because of his actions her baby-sitting service had suffered, her children had been harassed and she had been ostracized by her neighbors in Lebanon, which has about 25,000 residents.
DeLeo said at Hain's appeal that he revoked her permit after fielding the parents' complaints. He said he based his decision on a state law that prohibits certain gun permits from being given to anyone whose character and reputation make him or her a danger to public safety.
A court hearing on Hain's $1 million lawsuit was postponed in May after an attorney in the case was involved in a traffic accident.
Gun-toting mom Meleanie Hain, husband had been separated before fatal shooting, lawyer says
By BARBARA MILLER, The Patriot-News
October 08, 2009, 11:09AM
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/10/gun-toting_mom_meleanie_hain_h.html
Chris Knight, The Patriot-News. Gun owner Meleanie Hain speaks to the media after her gun permit hearing at the Lebanon County Courthouse in Lebanon almost a year ago.
Gun-carrying soccer mom Meleanie Hain, who died with her husband in what police are calling a murder-suicide, had been separated from her husband and was considering filing a protection-from-abuse order against him, her lawyer said today.
Matthew Weisberg, who represented Meleanie Hain in a federal lawsuit against the Lebanon County sheriff, said he understood she had been seeking a PFA against her husband sometime in the past month.
No PFAs were issued, Lebanon County authorities said.
Hain, 31, and her husband, Scott, 33, were pronounced dead by Lebanon County Coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum shortly after 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at their home at Second Avenue and East Grant Street, police said. The couple’s three children were home at the time and were not injured.
Police have not said who killed whom. They did say the bodies were found on different floors of the family's Lebanon house. Autopsies are scheduled for Friday.
Some neighbors told the Lebanon Daily News they heard or saw the children — a 10-year-old boy and girls ages 2 and 6 — running from the house and screaming “Daddy shot Mommy!” shortly before the 911 emergency center was alerted at 6:20 p.m.
Debbie Mise, who lives nearby, said she heard a strange sound followed by the screams of the children. “I heard something heavy drop or fall, and then right away I heard the kids screaming, but I thought they were playing,” Mise said. “It was loud. But it didn’t sound like a pop.”
Lebanon Police Chief Daniel Wright said Thursday that the case is classified as a “death investigation” involving two adult victims, but that no one outside the home nor any of the children is suspected of killing the couple. Detectives were still at the scene late Thursday morning, he said. Wright said he did not plan to release any additional information about the case until after Yocum conducts autopsies on Friday.
Weisberg said there were indications of “some overt tension” in the couple’s relationship recently, and that they became estranged sometime in the past six months. “But there was no indication whatsoever that this was going to occur,” Weisberg said, and added that Hain “wasn’t angry or stressed out” the last time he exchanged e-mails with her about two weeks ago.
Regarding the couple’s death, Weisberg said, “My first reaction was shock and sadness. The second was that it’s the truest illustration of irony.”
Hain received national attention for taking a loaded gun to her daughter’s soccer game last year. When he first took the case in late 2008, Weisberg said, Meleanie Hain “spoke lovingly about her husband.”
Neighbor Mark Long said Meleanie baby-sat his 3-year-old son and that she and Scott had been having marital problems.
Scott Hain had been a parole agent for the state Board of Probation and Parole in the Reading sub-office since August 2008, said a parole board spokeswoman. Before that, he had worked as a corrections officer at the State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill since March 2000, said spokeswoman Susan McNaughton.
Meleanie Hain was thrust into the national spotlight when she took a gun, in plain view and holstered on her hip, to a soccer game Sept. 11, 2008, at Optimist Park in Lebanon.
Her permit to carry a gun was revoked by Lebanon County Sheriff Michael DeLeo on Sept. 20, 2008. DeLeo said Hain showed poor judgment in wearing her gun to the game.
Hain’s permit was reinstated by Lebanon County Judge Robert Eby on Oct. 14, 2008, but the judge asked her to conceal it at soccer games. Hain said she would continue to carry it openly under the Second Amendment.
Soccer mom wins gun permit hearing
Hain then filed a lawsuit against DeLeo for $1 million in U.S. Middle District Court seeking reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and costs, emotional distress and lost wages.
Weisberg said Meleanie Hain had contacted him in the last four or five months about removing her husband’s name from the lawsuit.
This story has been updated from an earlier version. The Associated Press contributed.
Does Hain shooting show citizens can't be trusted with guns?
October 8, 9:50 AM
Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea
Indianapolis examiner
http://www.examiner.com/x-1417-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m10d8-Does-Hain-shooting-show-citizens-cant-be-trusted-with-guns
The Lebanon Daily News tells us Meleanie Hain and her husband Scott have been found dead from an apparent murder/suicide following "a two-hour standoff with police outside their home."
Their headline calls her a "pistol-packin' soccer mom," and the story tells us "she gained national notoriety last year after she brought her loaded handgun to her 5-year-old daughter's soccer game."
Notoriety. People who believe they have a right to the means of self defense are portrayed by the media as notorious. And kooky. And comments under this story--and in other accounts, reflect and amplify this, telling us about "those who live by the sword," some viciously disparaging Hain as a person, and generally exploiting this terrible incident to attack the notion that citizens have adequate competence or temperament to be trusted with guns.
Because we're not trained law enforcement "Only Ones," you see.
As with all developing stories, "facts" are subject to change as more developments and information unfolds. At this point, I note two additional factors to consider:
Several neighbors said they heard or saw the couple's children run from the house screaming, "Daddy shot Mommy!" shortly before the 911 Center was called at 6:20 p.m.
So the "pistol-packin' soccer mom" was not the shooter? Meaning neighbor Debbie Mise's I-told-you-so "she just wasn't right" hoplophobia may not have made her the predictor of events she seemingly claims to be? Meaning...what exactly... about comment posters taking swipes at all gun owners over this?
And the second piece of potentially relevant information? Her husband was a parole officer in Berks County and a former prison guard at the State Correctional Institute in Camp Hill. He also had worked part-time for Lebanon County Central Booking.
The point here is not to point fingers at law enforcement--no group should bear responsibility for aberrant individual acts. That said, we cannot stand by while the fitness of citizens to keep and bear arms is disparaged on the grounds that we just haven't had proper vetting and training like the professionals.
For now, let's see how things continue to unfold. We'll no doubt learn much more in the coming hours and days. Hopefully, someone is there to take in and love the children, who truly are the main people to be concerned about now.
Pistol-packin' soccer mom shot dead in Lebanon
Lebanon Daily News
By JOHN LATIMER
Staff Writer
Updated: 10/08/2009 07:10:09 AM EDT
http://www.ldnews.com/ci_13506791
Meleanie Hain sports a holstered Glock at her daughter's soccer practice in September 2008. (Lebanon Daily News File Photo)
A Lebanon woman who gained national notoriety last year as a champion of Second Amendment rights after she brought her loaded handgun to her 5-year-old daughter's soccer game was shot and killed Wednesday night in an apparent murder-suicide.
Meleanie Hain, 31, and her husband, Scott Hain, 33, were pronounced dead by Lebanon County coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum shortly after 8:30 p.m. after a two-hour standoff with police outside their home at Second Avenue and East Grant Street. The episode ended quietly when police entered the house after trying to make contact with anyone inside.
No cause of death was announced, and autopsies were scheduled for today, said Yocum.
Lebanon police Chief Daniel Wright was guarded with information as detectives began the preliminary stages of the investigation late Wednesday night. He acknowledged that the Hains were both found dead and had suffered gunshot wounds inside their 1 ½-story brick home in a quiet neighborhood in Lebanon's southside. He would not provide any additional details, other than to say that police do not feel any other people were involved.
District Attorney David Arnold, who was at the scene, refused to comment.
Several neighbors said they heard or saw the couple's children run from the house screaming, "Daddy shot Mommy!" shortly before the 911 Center was called at 6:20 p.m.
The children, 2- and 6-year-old girls and a 10-year-old boy, were in the care of a neighbor and were unhurt, said Wright.
The Lebanon County Emergency Services Unit was quickly called to the scene and the neighborhood cordoned off.
The front door of the house was open, and light could be seen inside the living room. But all inside and around the house was quiet as members of the Lebanon police and tactical team, armed with rifles, took up positions.
Petra Bossler, who lives next to the Hain home on Grant Street, said she did not hear any commotion or gunfire from the Hain home. She learned something had happened only when police came to her door and asked to come inside so they could peer from her windows at the Hain house, which is just several feet away.
Debbie Mise, who lives on East Grant Street, three doors away from the Hains, said she heard a strange sound followed by the screams of the children, which she mistook for playing.
"I heard something heavy drop or fall, and then right away I heard the kids screaming, but I thought they were playing," she said. "It was loud. But it didn't sound like a pop."
Brian Witmer, who lives between Mise and Bossler said he saw Scott Hain mowing the lawn about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.
"He was mowing his lawn, and the dog was outside. There was nothing out of the ordinary. He didn't seem strange at all," he said.
Mise said she had a feeling something bad would eventually happen at the Hain home.
"She just wasn't right," Mise said of Meleanie Hain. "You don't bring a gun to a kids' soccer game, and you don't wear a gun when you go shopping at Kohl's."
Meleanie Hain was dubbed the pistol-packin' soccer mom by the media in September 2008after it was first reported in the Lebanon Daily News that she wore her holstered 9mm Glock pistol to her daughter's soccer match. She became a spokeswoman of sorts for open-carry advocates - who support the right to carry a gun in the open - after complaints caused county Sheriff Mike DeLeo to confiscate her concealed-weapon permit.
Hain appealed the action, and after a hearing DeLeo was ordered to return the permit.
Hain did not let the matter end there. She filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against DeLeo. That trial was awaiting scheduling in U.S. Middle District Court.
Meleanie Hain at last report operated a day-care center in her home.
Her husband was a parole officer in Berks County and a former prison guard at the State Correctional Institute in Camp Hill. He also had worked part-time for Lebanon County Central Booking.
johnlatimer@ldnews.com; 272-5611, ext. 149
Gun-toting soccer mom is shot dead
By Steve Farley
October 08, 2009, 12:00AM
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/10/gun-toting_soccer_mom_is_shot.html
CHRIS KNIGHT, The Patriot-NewsGun owner Meleanie Hain, in front of her house in Lebanon in December.Meleanie Hain, the pistol-carrying Lebanon mom who received national attention for taking a loaded gun to her daughter’s soccer game, was shot to death Wednesday night with her husband in an apparent murder-suicide, police said.
Hain, 31, and her husband, Scott, 33, were pronounced dead by Lebanon County Coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum shortly after 8:30 p.m. at their home at Second Avenue and East Grant Street, Lebanon, police said.
The couple’s three children were home at the time and were not injured. They are staying with relatives and friends, police said.
This story has been updated.
Neighbor Mark Long said Meleanie baby-sat his 3-year-old son and that she and Scott had been having marital problems for the last week. Scott left on Tuesday and Meleanie did not know where he went, but he came back Wednesday, Long said.
Meleanie Hain was thrust into the national spotlight when she took a gun, in plain view and holstered on her hip, to a soccer game Sept. 11, 2008, at Optimist Park in Lebanon.
Her permit to carry a gun was revoked by Lebanon County Sheriff Michael DeLeo on Sept. 20, 2008. DeLeo said Hain showed poor judgment in wearing her gun to the game.
Hain’s permit was reinstated by Lebanon County Judge Robert Eby on Oct. 14, 2008, but the judge asked her to conceal it at soccer games. Hain said she would continue to carry it openly under the Second Amendment.
Hain then filed a lawsuit against DeLeo for $1 million in U.S. Middle District Court seeking reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and costs, emotional distress and lost wages.
"She has been stigmatized unfairly," her attorney, Matthew Weisberg said at the time.
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence then offered to defend DeLeo for free.
Daniel Vice, a senior attorney for the Brady Center, said at the time: "It is a case that calls out for common sense. ... It’s ridiculous to bring a gun to a child’s soccer game."
A hearing on Hain’s suit was postponed in May after one of the attorneys in the case was involved in an auto accident.
In an interview with The Patriot-News published Dec. 27, Hain said: "I am happy being a gun owner."
She said she had no intention of changing her views on gun ownership and noted her critics had no intention of changing theirs.
She acknowledged the publicity had detrimentally affected her life. "I have read all sorts of slander, personal attacks, and even threats toward me, my family, and, yes, some specific to my children," she said in the interview.
"The publicity surrounding me as a person makes me feel awkward and uncomfortable.
As stated previously, I am willing to talk to the press because the issue is so important, but the focus on me, personally, has been difficult because it simply is not about me," she said.
About the decision to sue DeLeo, Hain said she did it because she was wronged.
"Just the fact that he was wrong is evidenced by the fact that my license was restored to me. ... I am a victim of Sheriff Michael DeLeo’s. I am a victim of those in society as a direct result of his actions as well. The way people look at me sometimes when I am out running errands, I feel as if I am wearing a scarlet letter, and really it’s a Glock 26."
Staff writer Monica von Dobeneck contributed to this report.
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September 19th, 2008
shefearsnothing Grand Member
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Lebanon, Pennsylvania (Lebanon County)
Posts: 1,982 Rep Power: 362
shefearsnothing's Revocation and Legal Info thread
I was just informed that I will be getting my letter.
I was also told that if I contact the sheriff and agree to CONCEAL for soccer games that he will reinstate it. I don't see that happening.
This is just like sheriffs sending out letters with LTCF telling people they HAVE to conceal.
Any help is appreciated.
I AM going to call him as soon as I officially receive the letter and ask him on what basis it is being revoked as I have not committed ANY violations that would condone this.
Also, do they have to tell me who complained? Can I file a suit against the sheriff for illegally pulling my LTCF and incurring any attorney's fees for no reason?
ETA: My understanding from the conversation was that he will want me to agree to conceal "for the soccer crap" but I don't know..he might want me to conceal ALL THE TIME" BULLSHIT!I guess these stupid asses don't realize that taking it FORCES me to OC? __________________
http://forum.pafoa.org/open-carry-144/32946-shefearsnothings-revocation-legal-info-thread.html
PAFOA WEBSITE [PA FIREARM OWNERS ASSOCIATION]
Soccer parents wince at prospect of guns at games
By James Brown
October 17, 2008, 10:48PM
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2008/10/soccer_parents_wince_at_prospe.html
JIM ZENGERLE, The Lebanon Daily News. Isabella Hain, 5, gives her mother, Meleanie Hain, a hug before heading onto the soccer field on Sept. 23 at Optimist Park in Lebanon. Meleanie Hain's insistance on wearing her loaded Glock 26 to the game has other parents up in arms.Sharon Gregg-Bolognese, the president of the Central Pennsylvania Youth Soccer League, has been getting an earful from parents and coaches who are worried that people will start packing pistols to their children's soccer games.
In a case that gained national attention, a Lebanon County judge ruled Tuesday that Meleanie Hain should get back her concealed-gun permit, which the county sheriff revoked after Hain openly carried a gun to her 5-year-old daughter's soccer game.
CHRIS KNIGHT, The Patriot-NewsGun owner Meleanie Hain speaks to the media after her gun-permit hearing at the Lebanon County Courthouse in Lebanon on Tuesday.Since then, dozens of readers have posted comments on PennLive.com either applauding or attacking the ruling and Hain's comments that she will likely continue to carry her gun at her children's soccer games. Comments on the PennLive forum use words such as "arrogant jerk," "idiot," "dufus," "cowards" and "sheepish."
Most of the comments on PennLive have come from people applauding the right to openly bear arms.
But a lot of the parents at soccer games feel differently, Gregg-Bolognese said.
"Come on, a 5-year-old's soccer game?" she said. "I mean, really. But if she was in my club and I told her she cannot carry, I would be sued."
Gregg-Bolognese said some clubs have approached her about hiring security guards. Some fathers have threatened to take a gun away from anyone who arrives at a game with one, an idea she tries to squelch. Referees have asked if they should carry guns.
She is trying to come up with a policy to deal with the situation, but it is not easy, she said.
Tom Dougherty, the president of the Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer Association, said he has been consulting with lawyers, but he believes his hands are tied.
"We could put a rule in our books, but we can't enforce it," he said. "We're really kind of powerless."
Gregg-Bolognese suggests clubs check with their school districts and municipalities to see if there are fields where guns can be banned. Guns are generally not allowed on school district property, for instance.
She also tells them to abandon a game if they don't feel safe.
"We don't want kids at risk. Sometimes canceling the game is the only option," she said.
Many people were surprised to find that anybody who is allowed to own a gun -- which is anyone who has passed a criminal background check and is mentally stable -- can openly carry a firearm pretty much anywhere. Permits are required only for concealed weapons.
That includes grocery stores, streets and even the public areas of airports.
"The airport is a public facility like a park or any other public place," said Timothy Edwards, the executive director of Harrisburg International Airport. "You're not screened until you get to the security checkpoint."
Guns are prohibited in courtrooms, prisons and schools.
State regulations have traditionally prohibited guns in state parks, but the Legislature recently voted to overturn that rule. The change is awaiting Gov. Ed Rendell's signature.
Several municipal parks prohibit guns, among them those in Derry Twp., Lower Allen Twp. and Upper Allen Twp.
Derry Twp. administrative assistant Lisa Watford said the law has been on the books for at least 24 years, and she doesn't think guns have any place in parks.
According to Deborah Bitting, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities, the constitutional right to bear arms would pre-empt any local gun control laws.
Greg Rotz of Pennsylvania Open Carry said there is even some question about whether guns can be prohibited in schools. The law banning them also says guns may be used "in conjunction with a lawful supervised school activity or course or if possessed for other lawful purpose."
Rotz said the more people openly carry guns, the safer society will be. He hopes the ruling in Lebanon County will encourage more people to carry guns.
When asked what parents should do if they want gun-free soccer games, he answered, "They don't have that right."
Gregg-Bolognese said many of the parents in the central Pennsylvania clubs will not feel safer if someone is carrying a gun at the games.
"There are so many parents who will freak out at this it's not funny," she said.
Staff writer Matt Kemeny contributed to this report.
Gun-carrying Lebanon mom files civil-rights lawsuit
By Barbara Miller
November 24, 2008, 4:27PM
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2008/11/civil_rights_lawsuit_filed_by.html
Rich Banks, president of the gun-rights organization Pennsylvania Open Carry, speaks to reporters at the Lebanon County Courthouse Oct. 14 before a gun-permit hearing for Meleanie Hain.LEBANON -- The Lebanon woman who stirred controversy by openly carrying a handgun to her child's soccer game filed a lawsuit in federal court today claiming that her rights were violated and seeking more than $1 million in damages.
Meleanie Hain's concealed weapons permit was revoked Sept. 20 by Lebanon County Sheriff Michael DeLeo, who maintained she showed poor judgment wearing her gun to her daughter's soccer game Sept. 11. The permit was reinstated Oct. 14 by Lebanon County Judge Robert Eby.
Judge Eby asked her to conceal the gun when she goes to soccer games. but Hain said she planned to continue to display the gun, asserting her right under the Second Amendment.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. Middle District Court on behalf of Hain and her husband, Scott Hain, names DeLeo, his office and Lebanon County. It claims the sheriff's action violated her First, Second, Fourth, Fifth and 14th Amendment rights.
"My client has been harmed more than that court is empowered to adjudicate," said Hain's attorney, Matthew Weisberg, referring to the reinstatement of her permit in county court.
The suit seeks reimbursement of attorneys' fees and costs and lost wages, since Hain's baby-sitting business has suffered, Weisberg said. She also seeks compensation for emotional distress, punitive and statutory damages, and mandatory education for the sheriff's department on Second Amendment issues.
Hain had been carrying the weapon openly for a year, Weisberg said, but no one complained until the sheriff revoked her permit. He added that a sheriff's deputy was one of her clients.
The primary reason Hain carries a gun is for safety, Weisberg said. "She believes she is made safer by openly carrying," he said.
Meleanie Hain’s myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/shefearsnothing
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