‘Gun Girl’ Kaitlin Bennett accused of making anti-Semitic statements in leaked messages

Kaitlin Bennett, who is known as "Gun Girl" from her pictures while attending Kent State University, has been accused of making anti-Semitic jokes in newly released messages between herself and her organisation, Liberty Hangout.

Ms Bennett gained attention from the public after images surfaced of the then-college student carrying her AR-10 rifle on the Kent, Ohio college campus for graduation pictures.

Using this notoriety, she's gone on to be a controversial figure of the alt-right movement. One of her most recent outlandish statements included her willingness for women to give up their right to vote so she could continue to carry guns.

"Honestly, letting women vote in this country wasn't one of the best ideas," she tweeted this week. "Females vote with emotion and overwhelmingly support Democratic feel-good policies that take away our ACTUAL rights. I'd rather lose my 'right' to vote than lose my right to defend myself with a firearm!"

But now Ms Bennett has found herself in more controversy after screenshots of private messages from 2017 were published by It'sGoingDown.org, a far-left news site. The site published screengrabs of the anti-Semitic messages that were originally obtained by Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists.

In the messages between Ms Bennett and other members of Liberty Hangout, the group shared pictures of someone and wrote "they looked Jewish."

Ms Bennett also attacked Turning Point USA, an alt-right media group, in the messages. In 2018, the woman had a public falling out with the group because she thought they strayed away from "alt-right" messaging.

One message called the media group "Turning Point Israel."

"I bet they have a looottt of Jewish and Israel first donors," Ms Bennett wrote, adding she would donate her "Christmas gifts" to the Jewish country.

Another person then responded to Ms Bennett using three parenthesis around the word "they" to reference the media group under attack. The use of the parenthesis is known as an anti-Semitic symbol to highlight people who are Jewish or organisations with Jewish members.

Other messages followed from members of the group with them expressing how they needed a presidential candidate to "deport the Lone Conservative to Israel".

"Can't wait to get back to being normal Nazis," another group member wrote.

Previously, the Liberty Hangout faced backlash in 2016 for publishing a Twitter poll asking people if they believed what happened in the Holocaust as "we've been told".

The Twitter page later responded to someone's comment about the poll, writing: "It doesn't seem possible that 6m were killed." These tweets were later deleted.

Liberty Hangout has remained an active supporter of President Donald Trump on Twitter and wrote this week that the president should be "king" over Americans.

Ms Bennett recently shared on Facebook a picture of herself outside the White House. She said she was invited to tour the West Wing the Trump administration.