Soccer Mom's Heat Draws Heat

pO157.

Posted to Politics on Thu Sep 25, 2008 at 08:47:37 PM EST (promoted by DEMachina). RSS.

Mr. Lebowski, this is Bell Salnicker with the Lebanon, PA Soccer League and I just got a, an informal report, that a parent from your team,  uh, Melanie Hain, carried a legally registered and permitted firearm during league play. If this is true of course, it contravenes a number of the league's by-laws, and article 27 of the league.

On September 11th, a soccer mom drew the ire of soccer league officials and the referee. Her offense? Carrying a legally owned Glock 26 in a holster while on the sidelines. The soccer mom, Melanie Hain, was surprised because carrying a pistol openly in Pennsylvania is not a crime (outside of Philadelphia) and furthermore, Ms. Hain had a permit to carry her weapon concealed if she so chose. Charlie Jones, a youth soccer coach and county public defender, stated that he approached Ms. Hain because several parents were "upset" about seeing her pistol and asked her to move away to a more remote part of the sidelines.

In a later interview, Mr. Jones stated he did not believe Ms. Hain was breaking any laws by carrying openly and simply asked her to move away to calm the other parents. There was no call to the police and no confrontation. Ms. Hain states she always carries her pistol openly and has never had a problem before.

Unfortunately, the problem did not end there. A few days later Ms. Hain received a piece of correspondence from the soccer association stating she would not be welcome at any other events were she armed. Nigel Foundling, the soccer association representative and a former judge, also notified her that the police had been called on her because she wore a gun to the game. Ms. Hain took particular exception to one statement in his letter. He stated, "A responsible adult would realize that such behavior has no place at a soccer game."

She ignored the e-mail.

"After I received the e-mail, I continued to carry. Because they play on public property, they are not allowed to prevent me from carrying even though they are a private organization. [...] Nigel seems to think he could throw his weight around and pick on me even though he is not a judge anymore."

This situation lead to a nastygram (pdf) from the Lebanon County Sheriff. Sheriff Deleo mentioned that several people who saw her weapon during the game were "upset" and further went along to revoke her pistol permit as he found her to be "an individual whose character and reputation is such that the individual would be likely to act in a dangerous manner to public safety."

When contacted by the newspaper, the Sheriff stated that he took away her permit because he wanted to bring public attention to the matter and was not allowed to impound her firearm.

"I felt some action was needed, and I do believe that something like this should be brought to the public's attention so the public is aware of what took place. The public has the right to complain about the issue, and if the Legislature wants to do something, then so be it."

Ms. Hain is appealing the revocation in court. Until then she continues to carry her weapon openly.