A pistol-packing soccer mom has sued a Pennsylvania sheriff for recklessly revoking her concealed-weapons permit after she openly wore a handgun at her 5-year-old daughter's soccer game.

Meleanie Hain filed her $1 million lawsuit Nov. 24 even though a judge reinstated her license to carry firearms (LCTF) last month. She alleges Lebanon County Sheriff Michael DeLeo had “no cause” to revoke the permit and acted with “an intentional, conscious or reckless disregard” of her rights.

The sheriff's actions “deprived Plaintiff of her LCTF and separate rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment and state law, without due process of law,” the complaint says.

A plaintiff suing a government official for a due-process violation must show there was no rational basis for the official's decision or the official was motivated by bad faith or ill will. But DeLeo has said he questioned Hain's judgment in packing heat at a youth soccer game -– hardly an unreasonable position.

Hain -– who describes herself as a “just a soccer mom who has always openly carried [a firearm]” -- wore a loaded Glock 26 in a belt holster to an under-6 game at a Lebanon park Sept. 11. She has said warm-weather clothing made it difficult to hide the gun and she could reach it more easily if she needed to defend herself from an attacker.

But one of the coaches, responding to parents' complaints, asked Hain to move to the other side of the field from where the kids were standing. And after the game, the soccer program director told Hain that carrying a firearm was against the program's policy.

“A responsible adult would realize such behavior has no place at a soccer game,” Nigel Foundling wrote in an e-mail in which he also said he would be informing police about the matter.

Under Pennsylvania law, police have broad discretion in deciding whether to issue or revoke a concealed-weapons permit. DeLeo notified Hain of his decision to revoke her permit Sept. 17, citing Section 6109(e)(1)(i) of the Pennsylvania Uniform Firearms Act, which says a license shall not be issued to

An individual whose character and reputation is such that the individual would be likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety.

Hain appealed the revocation, arguing that "legally and openly carrying a firearm and thereby 'upsetting' some individuals who observed such does not constitute the 'good cause' contemplated by the [firearms] statute."

Section 6109(e)(1)(i) has usually been applied to more threatening behavior involving firearms. In Gardner v. Jenkins, 541 A.2d (1988), a Pennsylvania appeals court said a sheriff was justified in revoking the permit of a man who pulled a gun from a holster during an argument with a plumber, waved it about and said that was how he got his work done.

So it wasn't too surprising that Lebanon County Court of Common Pleas Judge Robert J. Eby reinstated Hain's license at a hearing Oct. 14. But like DeLeo, he questioned her judgment, saying she “scared the devil” out of others at the soccer game.

“Fear doesn't belong at a kids' soccer game from any source,” he said.

What's also scary is that Hain is now suing DeLeo for recklessness –- and plans to continue wearing a gun at soccer games -- rather than take any responsibility for the fear she so thoughtlessly inspired.