Play video content EXCLUSIVE TMZ.com

Taylor "Lil Bit" Wright is worried someone's going to break into her house before she heals from childbirth -- and that's why she keeps a loaded weapon handy ... even next to her newborn.

The ex "Party Down South" star came on TMZ Live to respond to the critics who've been blasting her about the pic of her handgun on a nightstand, right next to her one-month old and baby daddy, Dalton Elliott.

To say Lil Bit is a proud gun-toting mama would be a huge understatement. Check out this clip -- she explains she's still recovering from a c-section ... so she wants to be armed and ready. As she puts it ... "Someone breaks in, I'm killin' 'em."