Guns or government-run healthcare?
That is the constitutional trade Dan Bongino recently put before his audience after revisiting comments from Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate.
In a video originally posted in 2023, El-Sayed asked, “What if we tweaked the Constitution?” He then floated replacing the right to bear arms with a right to healthcare.
The video was later made private, but The Reload reported on the remarks after El-Sayed’s Senate campaign gained momentum. The comment was made in the aftermath of the Covenant School shooting in Nashville, so it was not a new proposal delivered during the current campaign. Still, it has followed El-Sayed into the general election.
Bongino Isn’t Buying the “Tweak”
Bongino’s response was about as subtle as a flashbang.
He argued that removing the right to keep and bear arms would not qualify as a minor constitutional adjustment. It would eliminate one of the protections contained in the Bill of Rights and replace it with a government-provided benefit.
That distinction formed the backbone of his commentary. The Bill of Rights largely tells the government what it cannot do to citizens. It cannot silence speech, prohibit peaceful assembly, ignore due process or infringe the right to keep and bear arms.
A constitutional right to healthcare would work differently. It would require some combination of taxpayer funding, government administration and services provided by healthcare professionals. Bongino argued that these are two fundamentally different kinds of rights and should not be casually swapped.
He also aimed his comments directly at Democratic gun owners, asking why someone who values the 2A would vote for a candidate who once proposed removing it.
That is a fair question for voters, even if Bongino’s answer is already crystal clear.
The Comment Hasn’t Gone Away
El-Sayed had another opportunity to put the issue to rest in August 2026. When asked during a television interview whether he still supported replacing the Second Amendment, he did not offer a direct disavowal.
Instead, he argued that more Americans are worried about being able to see a doctor than about owning a firearm. He also said he was comfortable with people possessing hunting rifles. That answer did little to settle concerns among gun-rights supporters because the Second Amendment is not limited to hunting.
El-Sayed went on to win Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary and is now facing Republican Mike Rogers in the general election.
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms also jumped into the fight. CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb called El-Sayed’s proposal extreme and argued that other Democratic leaders should publicly reject it.
El-Sayed’s own endorsements page lists GIFFORDS PAC and a Moms Demand Action “Gun Sense Candidate” designation. GIFFORDS also announced its endorsement in August.
Not Exactly a Quick Edit
For the record, no senator, president or political party can simply open the Constitution, hit backspace and replace the Second Amendment.
Under Article V, an amendment must be proposed by two-thirds of both houses of Congress or through a convention requested by two-thirds of the states. It then must be ratified by three-fourths of the states.
Calling that process a “tweak” is doing some serious work.
There is also no practical reason healthcare reform and the Second Amendment must be treated as an either-or proposition. Congress can debate Medicare for All, private insurance, public options or any other healthcare plan without deleting an enumerated constitutional right.
But El-Sayed framed the trade himself, and Bongino wants gun owners to take that seriously.
So, what do you think?
Would any promise of government-run healthcare convince you to give up the right to keep and bear arms? Is Bongino right to sound the alarm, or is too much being made of an old comment?
Sound off below.
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El Sayid is an American born patriot and has denounced the Muslim Brotherhood. He is hated by the Far Right Jackbooted Nazi’s because he is not White Anglo Saxon and Protestant. That is right out of Nazi Germany. That is why the Far Right is an existential danger to the U.S. Constitution and our democratic way of life. These Jackboots have even stated El Sayid because of his religion and ethnic background can never be a real American even though he was born in the U.S. Shades of Nazi Germany.
Vote to save our Democracy, vote for El -Sayid. The Republicans are screaming “We are proud to be bigoted, racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, Far Right 21st Century Nazi’s.
The racist smear campaign against El-Sayed who is American born is right out of Nazi Germany. And the Far Right Storm Troopers are loving every minute of it. What is next, concentration camps, and gas chambers, for everyone not White Anglo Saxon and Protestant. The Far Right certainly hope so.
Nazism did not die at the end of WWII in Germany they just moved here to the U.S. and now run the Republican Party and came close to overthrowing the U,S. Government by force back on Jan 6th when Herr Drumpf attempted to take over the Government by force to the cheers of his jackbooted Storm Troopers. He has no intention of leaving office in 2028 and has made vague and nebulous statements leading one to believe that he is going to do it and make himself dictator for life much to the cheers of his Jackboots.
The American philosopher Santiago once said “He who does not know the past is condemned to relive it”.
And Abraham Lincoln said that “The U.S. will never be conquered by an outside force but will destroy itself from within”. The Republican Jackboots are hell bent on making that happen. It is they who have totally disregarded everything in the Constitution. Mike Johnson has stated he will never step down from power even if they lose the upcoming elections. Its right out of Nazi Germany.
During the late 1700’s in the Southern States slaves actually outnumbered Whites by 20 to 1. The Southern States wanted a guarantee that if they joined the Federal Government they would retain the right to have and control their own Militias to hunt down and kill any slaves that revolted. At the time there was a slave revolt going on in Haiti and many White Slave Owners were fleeing Haiti and bringing some of their slaves with them to the U.S. and the U,S. Slaves were finding out quickly about this. Madison then wrote the Second Amendment to entice the Southern States into joining the Union.
Both University professors Carl T. Bogus and Carol Anderson wrote books on this subject and both came to the same conclusion and that was that the Second Amendment had zero to do with the right of the individual to keep and bear arms. It was written to guarantee mass murder during any slave revolt by hunter, killer Militias.
Now lets compare Germany and the U,S. Germany has 25% more police than the U.S. does and Germany requires that police get 3 years of intensive training before being allowed to carry a firearm as a certified police officer. Germany also has strict gun laws as compared to the U,S. where even a raving and ranting lunatic can buy all the “second hand” guns he wats no questions asked.
Germany vs United States — Crime Statistics Comparison
The United States has significantly higher rates of violent crime, homicide, and recorded sexual assaults than Germany, despite Germany’s higher per‑capita gun ownership.
Germany v/s the United States The Difference:
Guns per 100 residents 30.3 88.8
USA has ~3× more
Intentional homicide rate (per 100,000) 0.81 4.70
USA ~6× higher
Murder rate (per 100,000) 690 cases 12,996 cases
USA ~19× higher
Murder rate per million people 8.44 42.01
USA ~5× higher
Recorded rapes (per million people) 94.45 274.04
USA ~3× higher
Homicide: The U.S. homicide rate is about six times Germany’s, with over 12,000 murders annually vs. ~690 in Germany
.Gun ownership: Germany has more guns per capita (30.3 vs. 88.8), yet far fewer homicides, suggesting differences in gun use, enforcement, and societal factors
Germany also has National Health Care with 6 different teers of Health Care. You can even opt out of it all together and rely on private insurance.
Only 3% of the gun owners in America own 90% of all the guns. It is this Paranoid Far Right Group that is also inflamed by the NRA who gets most of its money from them that prevent any sane gun laws from ever being passed.
In fact the majority of gun owners agree that the gun problem in the U.S. is totally out of control. When a Nation ignores mass school shooting and cares nothing about the lives of their children it is a Nation well on its way to total societal disintegration, In fact on average 45,000 people are gunned down in the U.S. every year. No other civilized industrialized Nation on earth permits such utter and total madness.
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Guns take a long, long, back seat to your Health Care. Guns do you no good if you are dead or if you go bankrupt over health care. The U.S. is the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee heath care as a human right. As long as the Gangster Criminal Republicans are in power you will never get affordable heath care.
When the Criminal Republican destroyed the Obama Heath Care extensions I lost both my eye care medications. Xiidra went from being totally FREE to costing me $3,000 a year and Miebo went from $600 a year to $2,500 a year. None of which I can afford.
When this Republican crime happened to me I went into a rage and already have voted straight Democrat.
And remember your cost of living on everything, food, medical care, gasoline, diesel fuel and the outrageous stupid criminal Tariffs and the endless forever new war with Iran and the planed next war and invasion of Cuba are all the depraved and Moronic Herr Drumpf’s fault.
You will never get any sane gun control under the corrupt Republicans who are bought off by the NRA. Any criminal or nut case can walk out of prison, cross the street and buy all the firepower he wants at the nearest bar or flea market because we have no Federal Law that requires a background check on “All” firearms purchases. This is not registration but only an extension of the Brady Bill Law that already does that but only on the sale of “new guns” not used ones. This is pure insanity letting criminals and nut cases buy all the firepower they want.
Do not vote for Islamocrats, they will be the end of this country as we know it.
If you don’t see this there is something wrong with you.
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When is America going to wake up and stop voting for these Muslim communist? A democratic socialist doesn’t exit, is a new coined BS terminology. And stop thinking the new so called democratic socialist can be worked with or bargain with…NO!!!!!!! Two different ideologies one based in communist ideology and the other one in individual rights. America wake the hell up!!!!!! A good communist is a dead communist.
One of the things that is of major concern by the “militant” Muslim community in this country, (the USA in case you forgot), is the second amendment. That is the very thing that Japan was most concerned about if they invading America during WW2. According to reports, one of their generals, possibly Yamamoto as he was very familiar with our 2nd amendment, reported that there would be “an armed citizen behind every bush in America!” Don’t trade your right to keep and bear arms for free “government anything” they can’t manage their a**!!! Beware people of Michigan!!
Want “Any” of my Firearms? COME GET THEM! I also own my own Bandaids!🖕🖕🖕🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
US needs to pass the SAVE Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) or these rigged elections will be toss ups where there should be landslides for conservatives.
I’d like to propose that any constitutional amendment that would infringe upon or eliminate a right is, itself, unconstitutional. The people required to propose such an amendment and the people responsible for ratifying it and certifying the ratification have all taken oaths to support and defend the Constitution, and the Constitution requires them to defend our rights. Anyone who proposes, advances, ratifies, or certifies such a change to the Constitution is violating their oaths and committing an unconstitutional act.
El-Sayed should beware. If he thinks the right to arms can be eliminated by repealing the 2nd Amendment, then the 1 Amendment can be adjusted to allow a ban on Islam. OTOH, El-Sayed may be looking forward to a time at which the 1st Amendment could be repealed and Islam made the official religion of the United States. Tinkering with the Bill of Rights is not something that should be permitted or even contemplated.
Great point.
Like many, El-Sayed doesn’t know or understand that the source of the right isn’t the amendment, we’re born with it. The amendment could be repealed tomorrow and our right to arms would remain. The right itself (if not the amendment) is essential to our right to our lives, which requires the right to defend them, which, in turn, requires the right to the tools necessary to effectuate the life’s defense. Permitting us only lesser tools, or taking some of the tools away, limiting our ability to defend our lives, reflects a de facto reduction in the value of the individual’s life. Yet, that is what they’re doing when they tell us we “do not need” this rifle, or that magazine, or that kind of ammunition. What they’re saying is “Your lives are not worth enough to justify the possession or use of those weapons.”
Firearms in the hands of civilians keeps dictators and benevolent administrators at bay. Arab Spring, Cambodia, the Communist revolution in Russia, China and elsewhere were won in large part due to civilians disarmed prior to overthrow. Mao’s “Political power thru the barrel of a gun.” is no frivolous issue. Of course Mao said all guns were not allowed except thru his control.
The United States of America’s Constitution is NOT TO BE CHANGED, BY ANY COMMUNIST, OR MUSLIM! I think that (way Back) 1950’s there was a LAW BANNING ISLAM AND ANY MUSLIM TO BE ALLOWED ANY GOVERNMENT OFFICE! Someone might need to LOOK INTO THIS AND START DOING “SOMETHING”!
quote————–Firearms in the hands of civilians keeps dictators and benevolent administrators at bay.———–quote
So its ok with you to live under the Nazi Dictator Herr Drumpf who has trashed the 1st Amendment, engaged in out of control corruption making millions while the American people can no longer pay their bills, afford groceries, gasoline or their Health Care??????
What an embarrassment you must have been for your parents.
The ” carrot and the stick” …….. anyone ?
Who are these EFFING IGNORANT PEOPLE who keep showing their IGNORANCE of what the Constitution of the United States DOES…
The only thing that the Constitution of the United States gives We the People is the REASSURANCE that the government cannot take RIGHTS away from us without our consent. IE, IT LIMITS THE POWER OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, NOT THE PEOPLE, OR THE STATES.
The Constitution does not GRANT, GIVE or EXPAND ON a single right of a single person and it was never its intention to do so.
Anybody who says otherwise is either ignorant, willfully stupid, or has criminal intent in mind.
Dano and all you 2nd Amendment media types SHOULD KNOW THAT AND YOU ALL SHOULD POINT THAT OUT EVERY TIME A POLITICIAN SAYS IT DOES.
Rights are not given, they are TAKEN by tyrannical regimes.
Privileges are given and privileges can also be taken away without a constitutional amendment
Food for thought the health care benefits that our politicians so eagerly bestowed upon themselves (PAID FOR WITH YOUR TAXES) and refuse to share with the American People. Is THAT a RIGHT or a PRIVILEGE??
It’s no coincidence a guy who openly supports terrorism wants to disarm us.
I support the 13th Amendment.
But I think responsible citizens should be able to own slaves. Especially teen girlz.
Hey it works in the old country.
Signed, Abdul Bin Fahr’teen.
The government can’t even run the DMV correctly or the post office and you want them to manage your healthcare. You’ll be dead before the end of the day.
my glock is my health care plan!