Armed soccer Moms
Meleanie Hain and her Glock
This kind of story also brings out conflicting feelings in me. I hate guns, violence, force, and brutality. Yet, somehow I get excited when unlikely citizens decide to arm themselves and be free from the need to contact the state when they need to defend themselves. Meleanie Hain is a 30-year old Pennsylvania soccer mom who carries a Glock 9mm on her at all times. She has drawn substantial ire among the usual authoritarian suspects in her community – probably because she is also an articulate advocate for her cause.
This blogger can say this much: With three younger siblings, I go to a lot of youth sports games – several dozen every year. Sometimes, police officers (of course armed with semi-automatic weapons) happen to be around. Apart from the usual discomfort I have with the feeling of unnecessary presence of the state, I can’t say that it’s obvious that “it’s an incredible risk to bring a loaded semi-automatic weapon to a children’s soccer game,” as an attorney from something called the “Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence” wants you to believe.
If I’m ever endowed with the power to snap my fingers and make all guns disappear from the world, I’ll do it instantly. Short of that, we may yet find peace and disarmament in time. However, in the short term, I’ll feel safer in the presence of armed moms and dads than armed cops and robbers.
Coverage in the Philadelphia Inquirer here.
She may need it to protect herself against police officers – too bad the poor woman who got violated by the very police officers called to help her didn’t have a gun on hand.
Posted by Valerie on December 16th, 2008.
The post to which Valerie refers is about a female victim who, being unarmed, called the police after being assaulted, only to be sexually assaulted by the police. The post and video of the incident are here:
http://justinholmes.com/2008/12/female-victim-strip-searched-by-police-caught-on-video/
Posted by Justin on December 16th, 2008.