Sarah Palin invoked gun imagery as she urged Republicans to keep fighting during a rally in Anchorage on Saturday night – weeks after a series of mass shootings that have left dozens of people dead.
“My dad, he was all about, no, you stiffen your spine,” the former Alaska governor told a cheering crowd at the GOP rally.
“You use what they throw at you as fuel. Let it strengthen and fortify you. And you fight for what is right.
“My dad’s words exactly were: ‘Don’t retreat, reload’.”
She was speaking a week after the Highland Park shootings in Illinois, when seven people were killed and more than 40 injured by a gunman using an assault rifle. On 24 May a gunman shot dead 19 childrena and two teachers at a school in Uvalde, Texas. And on 10 May 10 people, all Black, were shot dead by an alleged white supremacist at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.
The spate of mass killings have brought the issue of gun violence in America into the political spotlight again.
Last month President Joe Biden signed into law a bipartisan gun control bill designed to expand background checks on prospective gun buyers under the age of 21, and to commit more funding to mental health programmes.
Although bipartisan, the bill was fiercely opposed by many on the right.
Donald Trump also spoke at the rally in support of Ms Palin and Kelly Tshibaka, who are running in primaries for the House and Senate respectively.
Ms Palin is leading polls in a special primary to decide who will claim the vacant Alaska House seat.
The leading four candidates from the 16 August House primary will advance to the general election in November, regardless of which party they represent.
Ms Tshibaka is running against incumbent senator and Trump foe Lisa Murkowski.
