11-Year-Old Girl Brings Her AR-15 to Idaho Statehouse for a Hearing, Internet Melts Down

The great 2020 Virginia Gun Rights Rally last month has shown that pushing back twice as hard against gun control gets results. America’s gun owners turned out in Virginia and they brought their guns to make their point. Now, an 11-year-old girl has done the same in an Idaho statehouse hearing.

Bailey Nielsen, 11, accompanied by her grandfather, testified before an Idaho House panel today.

And her completely lawful visit garnered national news coverage.  Because the mainstream media loves sensationalism. From the AP:

An 11-year-old girl toting a loaded AR-15 assault weapon appeared Monday at a legislative hearing with her grandfather, who is supporting a proposal that would allow visitors to Idaho who can legally possess firearms to carry a concealed handgun within city limits.

Charles Nielsen addressed the committee that voted to send the legislation to the full House as Bailey Nielsen stood at his side with the weapon slung over her right shoulder, but did not say anything.

“Bailey is carrying a loaded AR-15,” Charles Nielsen told lawmakers. “People live in fear, terrified of that which they do not understand. She’s been shooting since she was 5 years old. She got her first deer with this weapon at 9. She carries it responsibly. She knows how not to put her finger on the trigger. We live in fear in a society that is fed fear on a daily basis.”

He said Bailey was an example of someone who could responsibly handle a gun, and lawmakers should extend that to non-residents.

“When they come to Idaho, they should be able to carry concealed, because they carry responsibly,” he said. “They’re law-abiding citizens. It’s the criminal we have to worry about.”

It didn’t take long for the AP story to find snowflakes melting with their bigotry. The Boston Globe reprinted the photo and the AP wire story and it met with a cornucopia of comments welcoming rich and diverse points of view.

Just kidding. The Globe’s readers hated this little girl.

Like “JohnnyCash,” the very first to comment at the Boston Globe:

JohnnyCash 2/24/20 – 1:12PM
Not a state I want to visit where 11 year-olds walk around with machine guns

Who was it that said it’s better to be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt?

Then comment #2 at the Boston Globe from “Slack“:

Slack 2/24/20 – 2:01PM
I agree, but technically, it’s not fully automatic so it’s not a machine gun, but yeah, the gun porn loving ammosexuals are just salivating over this photo and story. It’s a weapon of war and can slaughter scores of people in seconds, which is what it was designed to do because the Army long ago came to the conclusion that most soldiers are lousy shots. So a lightweight small caliber, low recoil, high muzzle velocity weapon that can put a lot of lead on a target in seconds was their solution. Also, the wounds these weapons of war cause, because of the tumbling action of high muzzle velocity, small caliber projectiles that turn human flesh and bone into splinter filled hamburger, are much worse than bullets from other types of weapons, deadly enough in their own right. Just ask any big hospital trauma surgeon the difference.

“Gun porn loving ammosexuals?” Ad hominem much, Slack?

And leave it to another Boston Globe reader to offer a racist bigotry angle to her criticisms of a responsible 11-year-old girl!

user_3838045 2/24/20 – 1:45PM
““I stand here before you today as a mother and grandmother who has had to use a firearm to defend their child,” Zito said. She said two men once approached her vehicle with her daughter inside. “Even though I didn’t have to pull the trigger, just the fact that they could see it, and they knew that I had it, was the determining factor,” Zito said.”

What actually happened: two innocent brown people walked near her. She pulled the gun and they ran, because who wants to be shot by a crazy gun nut?

Can you spell ‘psychological projection‘? So much for welcoming diversity when it comes to people who hate guns with a visceral passion.

How is it possible that this grandfather was not arrested for allowing his 11 year old to carry a loaded AR 15? Sorry Grandpa, we do not know if Bailey is a killer? My daughter died because of a teen with an AR 15. You should be in jail. https://t.co/fDbEtNwjB7

— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) February 24, 2020