Gun-toting soccer mom found shot dead

[CNYCacher]

Remember Meleanie Hain?  Gun-carrying Lebanon mom files civil-rights lawsuit


It would appear that she was killed by her husband today in her home while the children were there, and also that he committed suicide afterward.

Gun-toting soccer mom found shot dead
Cops: Pa. woman’s 3 children were home during suspected murder-suicide

Image: Meleanie Hain

Jim Zengerle / AP file
Meleanie Hain made headlines after she attended a children's soccer game on Sept. 11, 2008, with a handgun in plain view holstered on her hip.

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.
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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.

Harassment
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.

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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.

[AZRedhawk44]

How sad.   The kids were home, even.  I hope the children have remaining family to live with.

[Chrissy]

They had been having problems for a WEEK?  So he shot her??   Something wasn't right upstairs with him then.   :|

[French G.]

Sad story, sounds like she was on the webcam with the potential new boyfriend, been having marital troubles. Typical domestic violence tragedy.

The news pounced on her originally because she was not terribly articulate and had the audacity to carry at such a benign place as a kid's soccer game. I'm glad she did, but let's face it, she was no Philip Van Cleave in front of the camera. Now the media is wallowing in her blood as a big "See, we told you that's what happens to crazy gun-toters." Hence the headline "Gun toting mom." Not Second amendment activist mom, "Gun toting," a somewhat pejorative label. Open carry activism had zero to do with her death by her idiotic husband, but there is the headline. Sorry excuse for news media we have.

[MattC]

So, MSNBC includes a bit at the end about how the lawsuit was going and made sure to advertise the Brady Campaign, but they couldn't find anywhere in the article room to mention that the killer was employed as a Parole Officer?