Take The Offensive

Tulsi Turned

Months ago, former Democrat-turned-Independent Tulsi Gabbard revealed what amounts to a personal epiphany about guns, gun owners and the Second Amendment. This was on Donald Trump, Jr.’s podcast called “Triggered.”

As might be expected, a number of skeptics accused her of ulterior motives without considering the explosive content of her remarks. What former Congresswoman Gabbard said has the makings of political dynamite. All it needs is a detonator and this is where you come in.

Gabbard explained she grew up in Hawaii, “Probably one of the most restrictive states for gun ownership in the country,” and entered the military, where firearms and ammunition are strictly accounted for and maintained. But then came her short-lived presidential run in 2020, during which she encountered people like you and me whose beliefs, practices and lifestyles around guns were far different. For her it was an eye-opener. For us, it was political ammunition because her observations are now on the record.

“I’ve got to tell you,” she told Trump, Jr., “as time went on and I spent a lot of time, especially over my campaign for president and the year since, with a lot of folks in New Hampshire and Iowa and different parts of the country, who had a very different experience than I did growing up.

“They raised a lot of concerns about, around some of the things that throughout my time in Congress had all been coined as ‘well these are common-sense gun safety laws.’ This is well-intentioned, in order to try to make sure that our communities are safe.”
“That’s a pretty compelling argument. But as with many things in Washington, as you know well, once you start peeling back the surface, you can understand that for a lot of folks who are using those words, they don’t have good intentions at all.”

“Their real objective is to try to get rid of the Second Amendment and take away our right to own firearms,” Gabbard observed, “and our rights to defend ourselves, and even more pointedly, especially where we are now and where the Biden-Harris administration has taken us, our Founders intended the Second Amendment to be a check on the abuse of power by a tyrannical government.

“When you look at what the Biden-Harris administration has done,” she concluded, “where they’re using the power of our law enforcement at county, state and federal level in different ways, using the power of the Department of Justice, the power of the National Security state, against American citizens … where they have no issue of using the secret FISA court to surveil Americans, illegally without a warrant, they have no issues siccing the FBI or other law enforcement agencies against American citizens who’ve done nothing wrong other than exercise their right to free speech, so over time my increased understanding, my being able to have some great and honest conversations with Americans who cherish our freedoms, who cherish the Second Amendment, helped me better understand what it really meant.”

These aren’t just words. It’s the script for a powerful campaign commercial — GOP are you paying attention? — and even more, it’s how you attack the other side at candidate forums, picnics and other public gatherings where simply asking “What about that?” can have some very interesting results