Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Politics:

Backlash over ‘hot little girls’ remark follows Fiore — even into the bathroom

A Day With Michele Fiore

Las Vegas Sun

Michelle Fiore talks with attendees of the Fiore Club luncheon May 8, 2014, at the Italian American Social Club.

Michele Fiore is having trouble finding privacy.

Her recent comments to The New York Times about “young, hot little girls” shooting rapists on college campuses spread all the way to India. Twitter, Facebook and other social media exploded with headlines donning her name. Liberal publications slammed her. Rush Limbaugh sang her praise in the name of the Second Amendment.

The media attention renewed debates about guns, sexual violence and political correctness in America. They also spawned an awkward encounter in a somewhat private place: a public bathroom at the Legislature.

Caitlyn Caruso, an 18-year-old high school student and rape survivor from Las Vegas who is Fiore’s ideological opposite, tracked Fiore to the lady’s room.

Her hike followed a social media push replete with a hashtag, #caringnotcarrying, and an open letter to Fiore saying she uses trauma for her political agenda. Caruso sent Fiore messages via Facebook, Twitter and email to talk about the campus-carry bill, AB148, but had no success.

Caruso, who walks the halls of the Legislature with the zest of a teenager but comfortably testifies in hearings, said she approached Fiore online to start a dialogue about rape and gun ownership.

“Saying the things she did has a significant effect on a young woman,” she said. “... I was trying to share something that was intimate and hard to speak about,” she said. “It hurt on a personal and political level. These are the people that are supposed to be listening to our stories and they’re not pulling through this session.”

The brief exchange was congenial and started with a touchy subject. Caruso told Fiore she was a rape victim.

Fiore asked if Caruso ever fired guns, comparing the potential pleasure of shooting to eating sushi.

“You don’t know unless you try it,” Fiore said to Caruso.

Caruso told Fiore that she sought conversation by email and social media. Fiore asked if she was respectful or disrespectful in her inquiries online.

When Caruso told her about her social media campaign, Fiore ended the conversation and told Caruso not to follow lawmakers into the bathroom.

Minutes after they both exited the restroom, Fiore’s staff called the Legislature’s Capitol Police.

“If you’re not going to be nice to me I am not going to be nice to you. Period,” Fiore told the Sun after news of the bathroom incident spread.

Police reprimanded Caruso for following Fiore into the bathroom but let her stay in the building. Later in the day, she testified against a prayer in schools bill and lobbied lawmakers on Wednesday to kill another controversial gun bill.

Fiore, meanwhile, is refusing to apologize for her comments about “hot chicks” putting bullets in the heads of sexual predators.

“When you walk in my boots and you’re willing to offend people to defend their right to self-defense it kind of comes with the territory,” she said.

But Fiore asks one thing: “When I duck into the bathroom. I want three minutes of privacy.”

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy