Bullet Boy on Shooting Sports

In a tragic event a Pistol Packing Mom was shot dead by husband while chatting on a web-cam in Lebanon, PA.

Meleanie Hain, 31, a second amendment advocate and champion became popular last year (2008) after carrying a holstered pistol to her child’s soccer game on September 11th.   The murder was witnessed live by a friend on the internet via web-chat by her husband.   The husband is reportedly to have committed suicide shortly after killing his wife.   The couples three children were at home during the horrific incident and were unharmed.

Read the article from the York Daily Record:

Gun-toting soccer mom shot, killed in Lebanon

By JOHN LATIMER

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 of their home at the corner of 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 to be 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 south side. He would not provide any additional details, other then 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 2008 after 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.

Reloader’s know there is never an end of the “wanted list”.   I have sat around a bucket many hours chatting with my brother sorting bullet casings about halfway through to only realize that we each had been using the wrong bucket – BB Jr. is putting 9mm in the same bucket I’ve been putting 40 S&W.   What a waste of time when we could have been shooting!

Valentines day brought the answer.   As a gift from our mom   BB Jr. and I got the shell sorter!

Shell Sorter - Image from ShellSorter.com

The Shell Shorter touts itself as a”product designed to reduce the time spent sorting brass by caliber”.   We also got the aluminum .380 ACP shell plate to separate 380 from 9mm.   If you buy the shell plate you also get free shipping which offsets the cost of the plate, Buy Here.

BB Jr. or I have not been able to test it out.   It gets rave reviews on the forums and in the Tactical Journal magazine from IDPA where my mom found the ordering information.   Who knew she even read it?

Bullet Momma asked me to do this review because she was so ecstatic about how nice the Shell Shorter people were.   She said that she ordered the Sorter Tuesday before Valentines with instructions that it had to be delivered before V’Day.   She said within minutes of her order Jeff Harder had a tracking number and confirmed it would would be delivered in time.   Apparently it was delivered a day early and her shopping experience was such that she responded with her own review in her circle’s.

So… Anytime somebody takes great care of Bullet Mama they deserve a positive plug. If your in the market for Time Saving reloading gear the Bullet Sorter gets the Bullet Boy seal of A+ Customer Service Approval.

Liberal Democrat and 2nd Amendment supporters are probably a minority in most circles.   I am sure there are lots of both that just haven’t announced themselves like Jane Gabriele the star of a Democrat and Chronicle’s article, “Sports shooting: Fairport mom hits target in life, on range“.   The article shows an unlikely mother of 4, known Liberal Democrat, Jefferson Award winner for community service, NRA & Boy Scouts of America certified in Shotgun-Pistol-Archery instruction, and a 2nd Amendment rights supporter.

The article just goes to further my point I began discussing in the post about “Barack Obama Presidency and Guns“.   In order for the Gun Ownership movement to be effective in politics people like Jane Gabriele need to be won over.

Article from Democrat and Chronicle -

Sports shooting: Fairport mom hits target in life, on range

December 14, 2008

After watching Jane Gabriele’s work on the rifle and pistol range, a male friend gave her a ball cap printed with the words: “Shoot Like a Girl — If You Can.”

“We bring different strengths to the sport,” says the Fairport attorney, wife and mother of four boys as we sit and chat on a sunny day at the Genesee Conservation League in Penfield.

“Women have traditionally handled firearms. It’s not always easy. The kickbacks on some of the things these guys bring here can knock you on your butt.”

Especially when you’re all of 5-foot-1, 104 pounds.

At GCL, one of the area’s finest shooting facilities, members eye targets with everything from .22 caliber pistols and rifles to 44 magnums and .306s. Gabriele is a frequent guest of friends Joe Pera and Frank LaManna, who always leave somewhat in awe of her.

“One day, Frank had a .357 handgun which he can use expertly at 50 yards,” Pera says. “Jane was looking longingly at Frank who asks, ‘You want to shoot this thing?’ She said, ‘Yes,’ and she handled it beautifully. She’s tiny and I thought it would knock her on her backside, but she had no problem and emptied the gun. She’s an amazing lady.”

In more ways than being a crack shot.

In a few short years since taking up the shooting sports, Gabriele, 47, has become a National Rifle Association and Boy Scouts of America certified instructor in rifle, shotgun and archery.

As a lawyer working for the Empire Justice Center, a nonprofit legal firm, she targets issues ranging from predatory mortgage lending to special education on behalf of folks with limited resources.

She’s a recipient of a Jefferson Award for community service, and as a member of the Democrat and Chronicle’s Citizen Impact Team, she has penned powerful opinions on subjects as varied as gun control, school safety, transportation services for the disabled and use of nuclear power.

Let’s just say that conversations with Jane Gabriel are thoughtful, passionate — and never dull.

Clearly, though, she most enjoys talking about the family she nurtures.

Husband John Gabriele, a rock of support, is the head of the piano department at School for the Arts, someone more interested in keys than calibers, and that’s OK.

Two older sons from her first marriage are off and running. Tim, 24, a Rochester Institute of Technology computer science graduate, works for Harris Corporation. Christopher, 20, is studying chemistry at Geneseo and wants to teach.

Meanwhile, Anthony, 15, and Mark, 11, fill what gaps remain in mom’s hectic schedule with school, scouting, sports and music lessons. And if all this isn’t enough, Gabriele is a caregiver for her 78-year-old mother, Teresa Knapp, a dialysis patient.

“Jane just cares about people. She’s a sweetheart and the more you get to know her, the more you love her,” says Pera, a retired Xerox engineer, trumpet teacher and longtime family friend.

A small woman with big ideals. You could say she’s a real pistol.

OK. So how does a liberal-minded, nonprofit attorney become a gun-owning Second Amendment advocate?

Gabriele says with a big smile that she’s “the affirmative action” arm of her political bent. Someone who believes strongly that more education not more regulation is the key to preserving America’s sport shooting heritage while curtailing gun accidents, violence and crime.

“Sometimes the greatest handicap that we as liberal Democrats have is that we want to fix things and help people,” Gabriele says. “Guns … have been characterized as inherently evil, but they’ve been part of our culture as long as we’ve have had a culture. They are a useful tool and a source of pleasure — as well as a dangerous weapon.

“Keeping it in perspective, so are knives and cars and a lot more people will die from use of those instruments than guns this year. We need regulation that goes as far as possible to prevent Columbines and Virginia Techs, but not so far that we lose sight of the pleasures of plinking.”

Growing up on a farm in Brockport, the oldest daughter in a brood of nine kids, Gabriele enjoyed plinking with family members. But rekindling those memories isn’t why she raised her hand at her sons’ Scout camp when the rifle instructors offered parents the opportunity to take the merit badge course with them.

Gabriele wanted to learn more about gun handling and safety so that she could be a more informed adult authority for her younger boys. She encourages more parents to do the same. The NRA’s Women-On-Target Program is a practical introduction to firearms and has been widely praised.

Well-meaning parents who speak out against guns, then allow their kids to play paintball or violent video games where humans are the targets, are sending mixed messages, Gabriele says. The centerpiece of all credible firearms courses is “personal responsibility,” something Gabriele hammers home in a PowerPoint presentation she helped put together for Troop 208 in Fairport.

“The liberal agenda is anti-gun, it’s just a fact,” she says. “But when I look at it personally, I’m more pragmatic. What I tell my sons is, ‘I’d rather have you have the training and know what you’re doing around guns. I want you to have a healthy respect for guns.’ It’s the people that never train their kids (or get trained themselves) and boys being boys, find grandpa’s loaded gun in the attic.”

While aiming high isn’t a good thing on the range, it has served Gabriele well in life.

Home for her first marriage was a trailer park in Clarkson. With the help of legal aid, she took on the owners to clean up a faulty leach field that was a health hazard. Her association with Empire Justice Center has morphed from client to volunteer to tireless working attorney. As a single mom, she put herself through law school starting at age 29, commuting to the University at Buffalo, and passing the bar on her first try.

“I know what it’s like to feel helpless,” Gabriele says. “In the justice system, if you don’t have money, you’re a little bit screwed. That’s our one bottom line: We don’t charge a dime. If there are filing fees, we figure out a way. If you qualify for our services, we’ll help you.”

As they’ve grown older, Gabriele’s high-achieving sons have grown to appreciate their mom’s inspirational story.

“It’s the kind of the thing you read about but don’t see every day. I’m really proud of her,” Tim says.

Their mom taking up the Scout instructors’ offer to take the rifle course sounds just like her, too.

“Absolutely,” Tim says. “She has a no-holds-barred attitude about life.”

Gabriele calls becoming a firearms instructor part of the “twists and turns” of having an open mind. She’s not worried about growing old.

“I’m worried about getting boring,” she says with another infectious laugh.

Earning one of 290 spots out of 4,500 applicants for law school took spunk. It’s the same with picking up a rifle with a mule’s kick and hitting a tiny circle half a football field away. A “Zen-like” experience, she calls it, requiring controlled breathing and precise movements.

“When a door is opened, you either walk through or you don’t, and if you don’t, you’re going to regret it,” Gabriele says. “So what if you go flunk out of law school? Try it. That’s what this was. I figure I’m here on this planet and I only have so much time to spend, so try some stuff. This was really a wonderful thing.”

It was a bull’s-eye.