Meleanie Hain, a soccer mom who became a national advocate for second amendment rights, has been killed in an apparent murder-suicide with her husband in Lebanon, PA. The murder occurred within a week of a published study showing that the odds of being killed or injured increased dramatically if you carry a gun.
Hain attracted national attention when she appeared with a holstered Glock at her five-year-old daughter’s soccer practice in September 2008. The local sheriff county Mike DeLeo eventually pulled her permit to carry a sidearm after complaints from other parents, but Hain challenged the move and succeeded in getting the permit back. She was in the process of suing the sheriff and county when she died.
Meleanie Hain, 31, and her husband, Scott Hain, 33, were pronounced dead by Lebanon County coroner after a two-hour standoff with police outside their home at Second Avenue and East Grant Street. Their children were present when the husband appears to have killed Hain and then shot himself. A recent report indicates that she was engaged in a web chat when her husband shot her.
The children include a two-year-old girl, 6-year-old girl, and a 10-year-old boy.
The study by Charles C. Branas at University of Pennsylvania found that people who carried guns were 4.5 times as likely to be shot and 4.2 times as likely to get killed compared with unarmed citizens.
For a picture of Hahn displaying her favorite gun at soccer games, click here.
For the story, click here.
OMG!!1! I couldn’t believe it when I saw it was Lebanon, PA. Except of course I could. I lived there for five years; attended my step-son’s soccer games regularly. Never saw a gun, but when there’s a bunch of Bible quotes in public places (gas stations, theaters…) you know there’s a bunch of gun freaks. Don’t know why; maybe it is the regressive lack of education.
What kind of insane lunatic brings a gun to a kid’s soccer game? Was she trying to intimidate the refs or just scare everyone for no reason? Our right to keep and bear arms is premised on the need for the security of a free state, not our paranoid psychological persecution complex. I wish I could say I’m sorry it worked out this way, but I can’t, because it is that unacceptable to me for someone to think a kid’s sporting event is a good place for a demonstration of Second Amendment rights.
AY:
“It is 11 months to the day since my son committed suicide and life just does not seem as important today. What could I have done different what, can I say. I can say that it is tragic that these children’s life (as they know it) had to end this way.”
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I am very sorry for your loss, and likely, there was helplessly little you could have done. It is a lamentable feature of our humanity that we are neither perfect, nor willing to forgive ourselves for being so. I hope we will evolve from that.
:0) this conversation turned into far more than I intended it. I just meant that the word “unfortunately” should have shown up at least once in an article about a destroyed life or family. Her death, like all unfortunate ends, shouldn’t be anything less than a tragedy. And it seems here that it was just made a platform for a point.
But you all bring valid points. She may have deserved what she did, particularly since she was *indirectly* the means to her own end. It is ironic, albeit sad. I concede 😀
AY,
I keep that analysis lean on purpose and limit it to actual victims and relations of first degree so I have no issue with that statement. But as you can see, when the number of bodies increases the collateral damage increases “geometrically”. The second case still factors worse.
Case 1 : 1 victim, rem. = one immediate family
Case 2 : 2 victims, rem. = two immediate families plus two traumatized children which have unknown possible long term complications.
One set of damage is no more important than the other – all people suffer equally, but on a scale of sheer numbers impacted, Case 2 is the clearly the more damaging.
AY:
people can be cruel but magnificent as well. In my humble opinion good people far out number bad people. And most of the unkind or cruel ones are usually 8 oz. shy of a full pint.
One of the saddest cases that I have ever dealt with as a Guardian Ad Litem was the child of a woman that saw his daddy killing his mother. Not only stabbing but shot her as well. The father of course received life in prison without parole and the child became yet another victim of the system, in more ways than one.
I have lost track of him, but if he kept going at the pace he was, I am sure he is either dead or in the prison system himself. No amount of services could ever bring this child to peace.
This is why I think that there has to be some validity to reincarnation. You have to keep living the life over in some way until you get it right. This is the only way that some of the goddamed senseless things that happen in life make sense.
I read with wonder Mike A and Jill’s interpose on another thread and it had made an impression, but not enough to respond. Today I am responding in my own way.
Religion has to have some valid acceptable purpose in order to have some redeeming qualities. Even a Satan worshiper has some redeeming qualities and has a belief system that cannot be disturbed and they are more devout than most professed Christians I know.
I can say that I am a Christian with Deep Jewish ancestry. I can say that at times I am an agnostic and this becomes easier when I read such threads as this.
It is 11 months to the day since my son committed suicide and life just does not seem as important today. What could I have done different what, can I say. I can say that it is tragic that these children’s life (as they know it) had to end this way.
I do not know what caused this man to do what he did but I am sure that this was an act of desperation. People can be so cruel and cold, what has happened to this world as we know.
Buddha Is Laughing 1, October 9, 2009 at 11:16 am
One crime had no victim but a man driven to desperation by charges later proven false and aggravated by a poor excuse for an excuse by one of the parties that likely drove the man to suicide.
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I disagree, the man had to have family that must be mourning the tragic loss of their son.
Sorry jake, but people like Meleanie Hain get all of the consequences of the wild positions they take–even the unintended ones. That she suffered the fate that so many innocent others have, and who did not advocate her extreme positions (“holstered gun at a kids soccer game”,) is noteworthy irony for one who visited so much pain on others. This unbridled infatuation with the means of violence at the expense of social order had to end badly. The chickens have indeed come home to roost — and brought their ammo with them.
I hate stories like this, senseless deaths and those children alone in the world.
He would have killed her with a knife or a bat had he not used a gun. Psycho is psycho the instrument is immaterial. I say psycho because he killed the mother of his children with them there or nearby, I think that might qualify.
As far as the statistics go maybe the reason people who carry guns are shot more often is that they are trying to protect us from criminals.
Sad story all around. But why is this a tragedy and the hundreds of people who died yesterday on our roads is not? “One death is a tragedy a million is a statistic”.
Nevermind again.
Cursed multi-tasking!!!
It has been a week of Mondays!
Ok. I feel better now.
Doh.
Nevermind. That was in response to a post no longer here.
One crime had no victim but a man driven to desperation by charges later proven false and aggravated by a poor excuse for an excuse by one of the parties that likely drove the man to suicide.
The other crime had two victims plus children. That one of the victims was a pro-gun advocate is not only actual irony, it’s factually correct. That it was ironic enough to merit media attention is not the fault of anyone here. None of us were involved in the crime. I’m not privy to the Prof’s schedule details but I’m pretty sure he’s too busy to squeeze in framing some stranger for a domestic murder-suicide. It is the same irony as the trope “live by the sword, die by the sword” and before you go all Chuck Heston, I’m pro 2nd Amendment. So are several other who regularly post here. And the story is still ironic and note worthy for that alone. Most people mistake coincidence for irony but actual irony is always entertaining. Call it a quirk of the human psyche. That you disapprove because the facts illustrate exactly what anti-2nd Amendment groups claim and statistics back up is of no consequence. The facts unfolded as they unfolded. The toothpaste is out of the tube. If you want to be upset with someone about that though, I suggest you take it up with the Hains. They made the news, the Prof just relayed it. Unlike the Toronto Star story where they were part of the story proper.
No finger pointing though. Apples and oranges and displaced animus.
Anyone’s death sadden me, especially if they have not lived their allotted years. As an atheist I have no idea what “allotted years” really means but I get the gist of it.
Never-the-less their is a certain irony to this story that the Professor tried to convey. I’m sure you see it. Don’t you?
This seems to be a remarkably callous way to respond to a death, particularly in lieu of this article: http://jonathanturley.org/2009/10/05/man-commits-suicide-after-newspaper-wrongly-says-he-was-charged-with-molestation-of-boys-then-issues-a-remarkably-callous-account-of-suicide/
I am certainly not against gun control laws. But I get a distinct serves-her-right flavor in this article. This opinion is not said outright, but implied by the presentation of the facts.
My point is that news feeds and those pushing their own agenda eventually contradict themselves. It’s unfortunate that someone as brilliant as Turley is victim to his own pointing fingers, just like anyone else with an opinion. Guess I can’t blame him.