Maddow MELTDOWN: Falsely Claims AR-15 For ‘Babies’ Has Hit The Market

News Editors, Natural NewsAugust 11, 2023

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MSNBC AR-15 — Close-up of AR-15 rifle and magazines with ammo

A mental meltdown is the best way to describe the hissy fit MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow threw during her eponymous show on Monday when she repeatedly lied about a new AR-15 model being released LAST YEAR that was supposedly “specifically designed for babies” and “the teething toddler market.”

(Article by Nicholas Fondacaro republished from NewsBusters.org)

In reality, it was just another .22LR rifle that was designed to be used by parents to teach their young kids (not “babies” and “toddlers”) about firearms and firearms safety. It was a level of ridiculousness that requires a tongue-in-cheek response.

Maddow began by shrieking about the rifle “specifically designed to be wielded by babies” as if it was made for an African warlord who was raising an army of child soldiers.

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What she cited was the Jr-15 produced by Wee 1 Tactical. It’s a rifle they brag was “20% smaller than full-sized platforms and its lighter at about 2.5lbs.” Or as Maddow hysterically called it, a “sized down” M-4. “Not toy guns, not like super soakers, squirt guns, not bb guns, not cap guns, real guns that fire real bullets,” she warned.

Imagine you’re a parent with a love for exercising your Second Amendment rights and you want to share your hobbies with your kids and teach them to respect and handle firearms safely. Many parents in this situation would start their kid off with a .22LR caliber rifle. For simplicity’s sake, the Jr-15 was more or less a Ruger 10/22, the ubiquitous semiautomatic .22LR rifle in America, except it’s in the AR-style platform. It also fires a much smaller bullet than a standard AR-15 does.

But since Maddow had her whole pseudointellectual shtick going on where she pretended to be a well-research presenter, she refused to mention those facts.

Instead, she attacked the company’s marketing. In their original marketing, Wee 1 Tactical did use some cartoony skulls and crossbones with pacifiers, a format they dropped in favor of a more serious tone. But Maddow suggested that they wanted toddlers to buy their weapons. “[W]hy should any kid have to wait until they’re done with the teething process before they can start carrying their own assault rifle?” she ridiculously asked.

Her question was ridiculous because toddlers weren’t going into gun stores, dragging stepstools to the counter, and slapping down their tooth fairy money for a Jr-15. You still need to be a legal adult to buy a firearm in America and pass a background check. Even three or four toddlers stacked in a trench coat would have a hard time pulling off that caper.

Even more ridiculous was her apparent suggestion that frail and physically-handicapped adults, who would benefit most from a gun if they were attacked, shouldn’t own firearms. She even mocked their frailty as she bloviated about how Wee 1 Tactical should be marketed to them:

“Hey, are you built like a T. Rex? Hard time reaching the steering wheel and the pedals at the same time? Have we got the assault rifle for you?”

Or they could market it for people with low upper body strength. Can’t handle a gun that weighs more than two pounds? Find yourself unable to lift a carton of milk anymore? Don’t worry, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a semiautomatic, blowback-action rifle of your dreams. It’s specifically designed for you, great-great-grandma.

She also opposed the company’s newer marketing material that showed a father teaching his daughter how to shoot (pictured below), which some would call empowering. “And if America is now marketing smaller, lighter, fully functional semiautomatic assault rifles for 5-year-olds, I mean, what’s next?” she huffed.

While she was ripping their splash page for showing a father and his daughter, she didn’t share how the page also discusses the “great American tradition” of families teaching their kids to shoot.

“Since our nation’s founding, families have passed on a love for hunting and shooting sports from one generation to another. Parents and guardians wishing to preserve this tradition have taken the responsibility for introducing children to the safe, responsible use of firearms,” they wrote.

What Maddow tried to do was vilify that tradition and make it sound like something abnormal and contemptible. How else would you describe her suggestion that gun owners want guns in the crib? “If they really want to get the full market share that might be available to them, maybe they could do a littler one that babies can use in the crib. Maybe they could fire it with their feet or something,” she flared her hatred.

Having the weapon be smaller and sized for a smaller person was a safety feature in and of itself. Even for adults, using a firearm that’s too long or heavy for you can be dangerous. But that fact was lost on Maddow since her goal was to stoke fear.

She even scoffed at the patented safety on the Jr-15. “[T]hey’re very hot to tell you that it has special safety features. The special safety feature appears mostly to be just a second deliberately awkward safety knob on the other side of the gun from the regular safety,” she sneered.

Wee 1 tactical describes the function of their safety as “tamper resistant safety that puts the adult in control of the firearm’s safety switch. The switch itself requires strength and dexterity to release. When this is engaged, the standard safety switch on the rifle cannot be released.”

The whole concept of the rifle is for adults to operate alongside their kids.

Rachel Maddow’s lies and hysteria were made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Safelite and Golden Corral. Their contact information is linked.