Stupid Is as Stupid Does
Susie thinks it’s a tragedy. TPM calls it “very dark”.
Me? I call it “the predictable result when stupid people act stupidly”:
Meleanie Hain, the pistol-carrying Lebanon mom who received national attention for taking a loaded gun to her daughter’s soccer game, was shot to death Wednesday night with her husband in an apparent murder-suicide, police said.
Hain, 31, and her husband, Scott, 33, were pronounced dead by Lebanon County Coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum shortly after 8:30 p.m. at their home at Second Avenue and East Grant Street, police said.
The couple’s three children were home at the time and were not injured, and are staying with relatives and friends, police said.
While it’s incredibly sad for the children, when you have a couple of people who have no respect for their second amendment rights and carry their guns around like some kind of badge of honor (”look at ME!! I have GUN at the SOCCER GAME! hey everyone, LOOK AT ME!!”), you can’t call it a tragedy. You can call it PREDICTABLE.
Meleanie Hain was thrust into the national spotlight when she took a gun, in plain view and holstered on her hip, to a soccer game Sept. 11, 2008, at Optimist Park in Lebanon.
Her permit to carry a gun was revoked by Lebanon County Sheriff Michael DeLeo on Sept. 20, 2008. DeLeo said Hain showed poor judgment in wearing her gun to the game.
Hain’s permit was reinstated by Lebanon County Judge Robert Eby on Oct. 14, 2008, but the judge asked her to conceal it when she goes to soccer games. Hain said she would continue to carry it openly under the Second Amendment.
A lot of the commenters to that article are going on and on about her constitutional right to bear arms. And yeah, the deceased Ms. Hain had that: but with rights come responsibilities. Is there REALLY a need to tote a gun around in a place with 7.5 violent crimes per 1000 people? Well put it this way: violent crime rates are more than 3 times the national average in Philly, and I’ve never felt the need to carry a pistol to the park.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again: I have no problems with handguns, which are a pretty damn effective form of self-defense. They’re great for removing criminals who have broken into your house.
But unless the black helicopters come or the Apocalypse comes to pass, ordinary people don’t need to pack heat in the course of their daily lives anymore than I need to walk down the street waving a running a circular saw. And if you think a handgun is going to be an adequate defense against the black helicopters or the armies of the New World Order, you are sorely deluded. And finally, maybe you THINK you have the tactical skills to fight off an insane person with a gun, but really, you’re not going to know who the crazy person is until he starts shooting, and by that time it’s probably too late. There’s a reason cops and soldiers go through tactical training.
So no, the death of Ms. Hain, a unfortunate as it is for her and her children, is not a tragedy: it was an easily avoidable death if Ms. Hain and her husband were responsible gun owners.
Hence the Homer clip. Stupid is as stupid does.
