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Sheriff DeLeo's Abuse of Power "Draws Fire from Gun-Rights Advocates"

Mike

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http://www.ldnews.com/news/ci_10565770

Case draws fire from gun-rights advocates
By JOHN LATIMER
Staff Writer
Lebanon Daily News
Across Pennsylvania, open-carry advocates — those who support the right to openly carry a holstered firearm — are paying close attention to Lebanon after a woman’s concealed-weapon license was revoked for wearing a loaded handgun on her hip at her daughter’s soccer game.


Lebanon County Sheriff Mike DeLeo revoked Meleanie Hain’s license this week after he received complaints from a parent who attended a game played by 4- and 5-year-olds on Sept. 11 at Optimist Park.
DeLeo’s action will not prevent the Lebanon woman from carrying a gun in the open, but she will not be allowed to wear it concealed on her body or carry it in her vehicle.
Hain has hired Allentown attorney Robert Magee, who has filed an appeal in Lebanon County Court of Common Pleas arguing DeLeo had no just cause for taking away Hain’s permit. The appeal further charges that DeLeo acted illegally and “abused his discretion and the authority granted to him” under the Uniform Firearms Act of 1995.
Attorney George Christianson is the solicitor for the sheriff’s office. Yesterday, he said he had neither seen the appeal nor talked in detail with DeLeo about the matter.
“From the little I know, I think he is well within his purview to do it,” Christianson said.
Rich Banks, for one, believes Hain and others like her are victims of people’s ignorance of Pennsylvania’s gun laws. A staff member of the Pennsylvania Firearms Owners Association and a licensed gunsmith, Banks has started PaOpenCarry.org to help educate residents about gun owners’ rights to carry firearms.

“Gun laws in Pennsylvania are not really well understood, because there is a lack of information,” he said.
What happened to Hain is not commonplace but occurs occasionally, Banks said. In January, he said, a Franklin County judge restored a man’s concealed-weapons permit when it was taken by a sheriff after the man wore his holstered gun into a polling place.
And Banks himself is involved in a federal civil-rights case, suing police in Dickson City for taking away his gun after he and several others wore their weapons openly at a restaurant in the town about 10 miles north of Scranton. The gun was eventually returned and all charges dropped.
What some don’t understand, including some law-enforcement officials, claims Banks, is that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to wear a firearm openly. The concealed-weapons permit is a state law that gives a gun owner the privilege to hide his or her firearm, he said.
“Open-carry is the constitutional form of protection that has been upheld many times by the Supreme Court,” he said.
Banks’ Web site was inspired by OpenCarry.org, which was co-founded by Lancaster County native Mike Stollenwerk. It focuses on national gun-owners’ rights and is working to get open-carry bans lifted in six states, including Texas, Florida and Oklahoma.
“Only six states ban open-carry,” said Stollenwerk, a retired Army lieutenant colonel living in Virginia. “In the rest of the country, the typical rule is you can open-carry. And of those (other 44 states), only 15 require a license to do so.”
Pennsylvania does not require an open-carry license, Stollenwerk explained.
“Pennsylvania’s gun laws are normal, I guess you could say,” he said. “You need a license to conceal, and the minimum age for that is 21. At 18 you can own a gun, and you can open-carry.”
Banks said he has openly carried his weapon for years but understands why parents were upset when they saw Hain with her gun because it is not something seen every day.
However, Banks said, guns have been “demonized” in the media over the years, and there is an unfair stigma attached to guns and their owners. He noted that one in 20 Pennsylvanians owns a concealed-weapons license, according to state-police statistics.
“Open-carry is normal for a lot of us,” he said. “The only difference between me and others who possess a firearm is I’m not hiding mine. ... We believe that open-carry will bring firearms back into view and bring it back into normalcy. Good guys carry their guns openly; bad guys hide them.”
JohnLatimer@ldnews.com
 

jarodm20

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Well said. Good guys open carry. I just wish the Texas legislature would stop making me conceal my gun. Makes me feel like a damned criminal, having to make sure nobody knows I'm carryinga gun.
 

Sonora Rebel

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DeLeo's continuing to be an idiot... but true idiots don't realize they're idiots... even after a publicidiot check.

He's destroyed his public'County'e-mail account...:uhoh:

Final-Recipient: rfc822;sheriff@lmf.net
Action: failed
Status: 5.5.0
Diagnostic-Code: smtp;550 User [sheriff@lmf.net] does not exist






 

Grapeshot

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Sonora Rebel wrote:
Ya think maybe Dufus DeLeo got the message yet? :question:
I doubt it.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him get off the pot.

Sometimes you've got to "brick" the camel. :lol:

Yata hey
 

Evil Ernie

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"...Attorney George Christianson is the solicitor for the sheriff’s office. Yesterday, he said he had neither seen the appeal nor talked in detail with DeLeo about the matter.
From the little I know, I think he is well within his purview to do it,” Christianson said."

Well Mr C, since you think it's well within his purview, you truly do know VERY little.
It amazes me how these people get to be lawyers and have these positions.
 

Sonora Rebel

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These are the kind of people who we had a Revolution to be rid of. :X
 

tdyoung58

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That's why I sent my letter to him certified/return reciept.

E-mail sucks when it comes to this crap.
 

MiOpenCarry

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try one of these ?






Office Hours:


Monday through Friday - 8:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M.



Emergency Contact:



Lebanon County Emergency Management Agency at
(717) 272-2054



Mailing Address:





Lebanon County Sheriff's Office
Room 3, Municipal Building
400 South 8th Street
Lebanon, PA 17042-6794



Phone Number:



(717) 274-2801 Ext. 2356
(717) 228-4410



Fax Number:


(717) 279-8398



General E-mail:


http://dsf.pacounties.org/lebanon/cwp/sheriff@lebcnty.orghttp://dsf.pacounties.org/lebanon/cwp/sheriff@lebcnty.orghttp://dsf.pacounties.org/lebanon/cwp/sheriff@lebcnty.org
sheriff@lebcnty.org




Department Head:


Michael J. DeLeo, Sheriff
 

gnbrotz

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I sent him a nice fat packet this week, along with the following cover:
Sheriff DeLeo,

I'm sure this is not the first correspondence you have received regarding your recent revocation of Meleanie Hain's License To Carry Firearms.

Like Mrs. Hain, I encountered a Sheriff who was more concerned with personal opinion than the law. I challenged him in court, and had my License To Carry Firearms restored on the spot, without a single witness being called.

Since then, I have become actively involved helping others who face similar circumstances. I learned much throughout the process, and have now joined with those who assisted me to multiply our efforts against such injustices.

I've enclosed eight newspaper articles and two press releases to give you an idea of what lies ahead of you. Additionally, please find enclosed a cd, containing both local TV coverage and national radio talk show coverage of my case. I hope you like attention, because you are about to receive a great deal of it. Unfortunately, I do not believe that the majority of it will be positive for your office.

I'm looking forward to attending Mrs. Hain's appeal hearing and witnessing your defeat in person. No need to look for me though, I'll be sure to introduce myself.

Sincerely,
 

MiOpenCarry

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I recently sent an email to the address in my above post and did not get a 505 error.

Maybe they thought better of changig the address after all?
 

Repeater

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Saw this today at War On Guns:

Respectfully, Michael J. DeLeo

[SNIP]
There's nothing respectful about it. It's an act of arrogance and contempt.

A fund has been established to help her fight this outrage.

lebanonrevocation.jpg
 

Sonora Rebel

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"Some of the individuals... were upset. I'm revoking your license"... in essence. Uh... Not even the names of the accusers. No verification. "I got a phone call from my panty-waist buddy, so... too bad for you... " :uhoh:You must be dangerous and of disreputable character for doing something that's legal... but we don't like it. Nyahhhh!

Where do they GET these people? :banghead:
 

MiOpenCarry

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This is rediculous, was she waving the gun around wildly?
Was the gun unholstered at any time?

I hope she gets a good lawyer and fights this and then runs the sheriff out oftown in the next election.

Boy, if the mere carrying of a firearm is "A Danger to the Public" hunters need to be very careful walking down the road with a rifle or shotgun. They may have their license revoked for it.
 

nking

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gnbrotz wrote:
I sent him a nice fat packet this week, along with the following cover:
Sheriff DeLeo,

I'm sure this is not the first correspondence you have received regarding your recent revocation of Meleanie Hain's License To Carry Firearms.

Like Mrs. Hain, I encountered a Sheriff who was more concerned with personal opinion than the law. I challenged him in court, and had my License To Carry Firearms restored on the spot, without a single witness being called.

Since then, I have become actively involved helping others who face similar circumstances. I learned much throughout the process, and have now joined with those who assisted me to multiply our efforts against such injustices.

I've enclosed eight newspaper articles and two press releases to give you an idea of what lies ahead of you. Additionally, please find enclosed a cd, containing both local TV coverage and national radio talk show coverage of my case. I hope you like attention, because you are about to receive a great deal of it. Unfortunately, I do not believe that the majority of it will be positive for your office.

I'm looking forward to attending Mrs. Hain's appeal hearing and witnessing your defeat in person. No need to look for me though, I'll be sure to introduce myself.

Sincerely,
Man i laughed at this one, it is great, i applaud you for sending this to him, i only wish i lived close enough to see his face on that day in court. You know i think when this is all said and done he should be brought up on charges of harassment or something and have to resign from his position for sure.
 

HungSquirrel

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Mobile, Alabama, USA
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Unfortunately, some of the individuals at the Optimist Park were upset. Consequently, you are required to surrender your license . . .

You heard it first here, folks: if you exercise your rights and inadvertently upset someone, your rights are forfeit.

Wait a minute, I use my free speech right to vocally support gun rights. That very fact upsets people! Where should I turn in my Free Speech License?

Further evidence that licensing carry in any form is antithetical to liberty.
 

Deanimator

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Rocky River, OH, U.S.A.
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HungSquirrel wrote:
Unfortunately, some of the individuals at the Optimist Park were upset. Consequently, you are required to surrender your license . . .

You heard it first here, folks: if you exercise your rights and inadvertently upset someone, your rights are forfeit.

Wait a minute, I use my free speech right to vocally support gun rights. That very fact upsets people! Where should I turn in my Free Speech License?

Further evidence that licensing carry in any form is antithetical to liberty.
If you take the Sheriff's argument and that of his supporters at face value, ANYTHING you do REGARDLESS OF LEGALITY, which "upsets" someone is grounds for revocation of your PA LTCF. That would of course mean that things like:

wearing a yarmulka
homosexuality
interracial dating/marriage
being a Mormon

and a whole host of other LAWFUL activities would be grounds for revocation, since I GUARANTEE you they REALLY upset some people, to the point of MURDER in fact.

This was debated in detail on the S&W forum. Some people who supported the Sheriff's abuse of authority got nearly as upset as the soccer moms when the INEVITABLE logical conclusion of their argument was held up in front of them. As is SOP, they then substituted insults for argument. Oddly reminiscent of anti-gunners, no?
 
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