Chances are, if you're a conservative, you're also a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, which also suggests you believe that adult Americans who aren't felons, repeat offenders, or mentally ill should be encouraged to exercise their gun rights under the amendment.
That said, I ran across a troubling site this morning that I wasn't previously aware of. I suspect neither were you.
"Operation Blazing Sword," which bills itself as "a grass-roots organization dedicated to helping everyone, but especially queer people, become responsible firearm owners," purports to teach the basics of firearm safety, operation, and ownership — at no cost — without judgment of race, gender, sexual orientation, biology, faith, or "manner of dress."
Taken at face value — which I'm not suggesting you do — one could argue that the organization's stated mission is fine, or at least, not a danger to society. Or, is it?
The site goes on to say (emphasis, mine):
There are people who wish to harm you because you are queer.
Guns allow you to defend your queer life.
Therefore, guns preserve queer lives.
I read the above flawed (or at least selectively biased) attempt to connect dots in a logical manner at least four or five times before beginning this article, with multiple thoughts — on multiple levels — swirling around in my head. Among those thoughts:
As we horrifically and graphically saw, just one week ago today as I write, there are clearly people who wish to harm you because you are [fill in the blank].
DIG DEEPER:
Senator John Kennedy Levels Reporter Who Gushed Over Charlie Kirk Assassin's ‘Loving’ Messages
The Charlie Kirk Effect: The White House and Cities Across the Nation Honor Kirk's Life and Legacy
As extreme violence appears to be a more a viable option to a growing number of radicals and their causes, as a way to, let's call it "settle a score" — whether that score is real, imagined, or downright delusional — focusing on potential harm or death of "queer people," at least now, just doesn't square with reality.
Clearly, firearms allow all of us to defend our lives and the lives of our loved ones.
If I were to write a similar "logic problem," but switch out "queer" for "white," all hell would break loose against me — including being called a "white supremacist," and worse. Part of my point here is that Operation Blazing Sword, either intentionally or not, plays to the left's stereotypical canard that gay people in particular should fear for their lives because of how they choose to live their lives or whom they choose to love. How does that help members of the LGBTQ community? On the contrary, does it — or can it — lead to increased paranoia?
Now Comes the Unexpected Part
Squeezed in between various sections on what I'll call "LGBTQ propaganda," Operation Blazing Sword on Monday published an "official statement" on the brutal assassination of Turning Point USA co-founder and executive director, Charlie Kirk.
Before I read the statement, I expected it to be loaded with empathy for Kirk's killer — whose name I choose to ignore — if not justification for the assassination. Shockingly, it was anything but.
The statement read, in part:
Daytona Beach, FL, 15 September 2025: All deaths are tragic, and all murders are crimes. Who the victim was, what his politics were, or what he was saying at the time of his murder are as irrelevant as what clothes he was wearing. To argue otherwise is to condone crime when politically convenient, and Operation Blazing Sword – Pink Pistols (“OBS-PP”) finds this monstrous, unethical, and hypocritical.
Although our organization advocates solely for the Second Amendment and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, OBS-PP staunchly supports all Constitutional Rights, including the vigorous exercise of Free Speech. Whatever Mr. Kirk’s opinions regarding queer people, he had the right to express them peacefully.
Those who claim to cherish liberty yet celebrate his murder reveal they cherish expedience over principle. OBS-PP condemns both Mr. Kirk’s murder and the celebrations surrounding it in the strongest possible terms, and solemnly affirms our purely defensive mission.
The murderer, and those who cheer him, do not represent us, our ethics, or our mission. Our hearts go out to Mr. Kirk’s family for their tragic loss.
While I was initially shocked by the statement, it didn't take long for my "Yeah, but what's the real purpose?" brain to ponder the "real" intent.
Chief among them: how many (if any) activists on the fringes of the LGBTQ community will see or hear about it, much less heed, the Operation Blazing Sword statement? My guess is somewhere between none and zero. This begs the question of who — or what — was the statement was designed to impact?
Call me a cynic, but my guess is Operation Blazing Sword was simply trying to cover its own behind.
