National

11-year-old girl totes loaded AR-15 into Idaho hearing on gun laws

BOISE, Idaho — An 11-year-old Idaho girl who accompanied her grandfather to a legislative hearing on gun laws Monday did so armed with a loaded AR-15 assault rifle.

Bailey Nielsen carried the weapon slung over her shoulder. According to The Associated Press, she remained silent as her grandfather, Charles Nielsen, addressed the legislative committee before him.

"Bailey is carrying a loaded AR-15," Nielsen said, according to the AP. "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."

The AP reported that lawmakers had no reaction to the loaded weapon and asked Nielsen no questions when he was done speaking. The hearing the Nielsens attended dealt with a proposed law that would allow out-of-state visitors who have legal concealed handguns to carry them within city limits in Idaho.

A law that was implemented last summer allows Idaho residents 18 and older to carry a concealed handgun within city limits without a permit or training. The proposed legislation would extend that right to all legal U.S. residents and U.S. military members.

"When they come to Idaho, they should be able to carry concealed, because they carry responsibly," Nielsen told the panel, according to the AP. "They're law-abiding citizens. It's the criminal we have to worry about."

Republican state Rep. Christy Zito, who proposed the bill, argued that the law would make clear the state gun laws and allow people to better defend themselves if necessary. She cited having to pull a weapon of her own when two men approached her vehicle with her daughter sitting inside.

“I stand here before you today as a mother and grandmother who has had to use a firearm to defend their child,” Zito said, the AP reported. “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.”

Bailey Nielsen's appearance before the committee, which was captured in a photograph showing the AR-15 slung over her shoulder, caused outrage among gun safety advocates. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence spoke out on social media.

"This is the kind of extremism we are up against. The AR-15 was loaded," the Facebook post read.

Followers of the organization chimed in. One woman pointed out that an AR-15 is not a hunting weapon.

“(I) grew up in a family of hunters in northern Minnesota,” the woman wrote. “No self-respecting hunter uses this. These weapons were created for the destruction of people, nature and property. In other words, war.”

“If this is legal, God help Idaho,” a man wrote. “I’ll never go there.”

Another commenter wrote that a federal age limit needs to be set for carrying a weapon.

Not all who saw the image were against the girl being allowed to carry the rifle.

“I’d rather have her around if something ever happened than any of you professional victims,” one man wrote.

On Twitter, one man responded to a news story about the Nielsens by saying guns in public used to be the norm.

“Years ago, there were far more guns and far less shootings,” the man tweeted. “Guns are not the problem. Progressive indoctrination is the problem.”

Others on social media wondered how the girl was able to get a loaded assault rifle into the building. One woman wrote that she was not allowed to attend a city council meeting without turning over her pocket knife as she passed through a metal detector. Multiple people wrote about how they weren’t allowed to take cellphones into court.

The AP reported that it is not unusual to see weapons in the Idaho Statehouse, where some lawmakers carry concealed weapons of their own. Handguns and the occasional long gun also make appearances when gun legislation is on the table.

The bill being debated Monday was ultimately sent on to the House for review, the news agency said.

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