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.”
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.
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.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show
August 7, 2023
9:00:03 a.m. EasternRACHEL MADDOW: So, we are a big country, 330 million people. Very diverse, very heterogeneous, in terms of everything; in terms of backgrounds, traditions, the way we live, our values, our opinions.
But for all our diversity, I think that we Americans can all probably agree, I think we can all come together around the somewhat obvious idea that if there is one consumer product that America needs, one thing we're just missing as a country, it's probably a gun that is specifically designed for babies. A gun specifically designed to be wielded by babies. Specifically, an assault rifle-style semiautomatic long gun made to look kind of like the civilian version of a U.S. military-issue M-4 rifle but sized down so like toddlers can use them. Not toy guns, not like supersoakers, squirt guns, not bb guns, not cap guns, real guns that fire real bullets.
You’ve heard of the AR-15. Now meet the Jr-15, as in the junior AR-15. The company that makes it is just super cute about the whole thing. They call themselves Wee1 Tactical. Not “we won,” but Wee1 as in little one. Until recently, they had logos for the little girls and little boys version of this gun for babies. The logos were this little kid's skull and crossbones with a pacifier for boys and this little skull and crossbones pacifier – with a pacifier for girls. Because why should any kid have to wait until they're done with the teething process before they can start carrying their own assault rifle?
They advertise the Jr-15 as smaller, safer, lighter. They apparently recently did drop the pacifier logos and the Scooby-doo cartoon font in some of their advertising. But it's not like they're no longer claiming this is an assault rifle for babies. I mean, they could change their marketing of it. Right? They could say this is for a different purpose. They could have started to say they're making this mini sized assault rifle for people with unusually short arms.
“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.
When they dropped the pacifier logo explicitly targeting the gun to the teething toddler market, that might have seemed like it was signaling that they were abandoning the whole idea of assault rifles for kids. But no, it turns out they just dropped the pacifier logos and the cartoon font but they're making clear that it is not just for people with little tiny arms or not just for people with very poor upper body strength. It's still definitely for preschool.
And the reason you can tell that it's still their targeted market for this gun is because this is the image that pops up on the splash page at their website. [Image of a father teaching his daughter how to shoot] Clear enough? Here's another view of the same target consumer, maybe she's, what, five? Think she's 5?
And if America is now marketing smaller, lighter, fully functional semiautomatic assault rifles for 5-year-olds, I mean, what's next? Why would we stop there? 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.
The junior AR-15, the Jr-15 for toddlers is a real thing. For its part, the company who makes this kid gun says the reason it's so great for kids is not only because it only weighs two pounds and is sized for little fingers and little arms and little hands, but they'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. Because surely, kids won't be able to figure that one out on their own.
(…)
