Gun-Toting Soccer Mom Shot Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide

Melanie Hain, a self-professed pistol-packing soccer mom who was praised by gun-rights activists for bringing a gun with her to her children's games, was found dead of a gunshot wound, along with her husband, in what police say was a murder-suicide.

Neighbors said Melanie Hain and her husband, Scott, were having marital problems. Police have not said whether Melanie or Scott was the shooter. The couple's three children were all home when their parents were killed but were not injured.

In 2008 Hain, who lived in Lebanon, Pa., showed up to her daughter's soccer game openly carrying a gun. The local sheriff revoked her permit to carry a firearm as a result, but a judge overturned the sheriff's order, and Hain in turn sued the sheriff.

The case received international attention, with advocates of gun control arguing that children's sports events should be firearm-free, while supporters of the right to carry firearms argued that she should be permitted to bring a gun. Through all the controversy, Hain always insisted she was simply carrying a gun so she could protect her children. Today those children are orphans.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

10-08-2009 @ 1:24PM

su19000 said...

Apparently they didn't think about leaving their children without parents.
How sad.

10-08-2009 @ 1:52PM

ivo610 said...

Kind of ironic dont you think?

10-08-2009 @ 7:51PM

Tom said...

Jesus said those who live by the sword die by the sword. This time he was right.

10-08-2009 @ 7:54PM

Su19000, sometimes the murderer does take the chilren with him (it's usually a him, not her). But I guess this time the murderer did not have the heart to also kill his or her children.

10-08-2009 @ 8:06PM

Shane said...

These NRA assholes cant seem to figure out. "Live by the gun die by the gun!" One less gone toting moron! File this under feel good story!

10-08-2009 @ 11:17PM

Harpie said...

Unbelievably stupid. Those kids are better off as orphans than they were with that set of parents.

10-09-2009 @ 8:18AM

jzz3skys said...

Michael Smith knew when he posted this story that the neighbors had reported the kids running out of the house screaming "Daddy killed mommy" and that she had been seeking a restraining order against her estranged husband, a former prison guard who had made violent threats against her. Maybe that's why she was so adamant about carrying a gun, which may not be quite so outrageous if you consider how nutty the Pennsylvania gun laws are.

No, the kids loved their mother, they're not better off without her, and don't be so cruel, they may never recover from seeing her killed by their father.