Meet TORI BRANUM

THE WOMAN WHO KEPT ON GOING

Tori grew up in a single-mother household, surrounded by family that made childhood feel full. When her mother had to work or travel, Tori spent time with her grandmother, aunt, and uncle.

Some of her favorite memories were wonderfully ordinary—going skating, stopping at Taco Bell, or sitting beside her grandmother watching The Dukes of Hazzard and The Golden Girls.

She was a tomboy who could spend all day outside riding her skateboard and playing with friends.

And she had opinions. Lots of them.

Her mother used to joke that Tori would embarrass the President of the United States if she thought he was wrong. That stubborn independence wasn't something Tori had to learn. It was already there.

So was faith. Church was simply part of life. Her family could fill two rows on Sunday, followed by a meal together and the traditional Sunday afternoon nap. As she grew older, her relationship with her father deepened, and many of their conversations centered around the Bible.

Long before she understood what her calling might be, Tori was learning two things that would follow her for the rest of her life: Stand up for what you believe, and keep God at the center.

THE WARRIOR

At 19, Tori looked around at the circumstances surrounding her and decided she wanted something different. She saw people around her skipping school and doing drugs. On top of that, her mother did not have much money.

Tori realized that if she wanted a different future, she had to take responsibility for creating it.

She earned her GED. Then she joined the United States Marine Corps. Her recruiter told her she would never make it through boot camp. That only made her more determined.

At Parris Island, Tori discovered what she was capable of. She graduated. She became a Marine. And she learned a lesson that would become a theme of her entire life: Other people’s expectations do not get to decide your future.

THE MOTHER

At 20, Tori became a mother. Military life was not easy. She was serving while raising a young son, and the demands of the Marine Corps meant long periods away from home. Her parents helped care for him during those years.

Life continued to change. There were relationships, divorce, remarriage, deployments, more children, and eventually a family of eight children: seven daughters and one son.

For nearly a decade, Tori’s primary mission became raising that family. She became a stay-at-home mother while her husband served in the Air Force, including nineteen deployments. But motherhood did not stop Tori from pursuing her own growth.

She went back to school. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology. And through all the changes, she kept learning what it meant to love, sacrifice, adapt, and begin again.

Today, her children are becoming veterans, nurses, athletes, parents, and professionals in their own right. But Tori says their accomplishments are not what make her proudest. It is who they are. For Tori, that may be her greatest accomplishment of all.

THE ARMORER

After leaving the military, Tori entered the mental-health field, working in drug and alcohol intake and later with children. There she saw something that stayed with her: the devastating impact violence can have on women and families.

And suddenly, two very different parts of her life came together: her psychology education and her Marine Corps firearms training.

She began teaching women basic handgun skills, not because she wanted women to live in fear, but because she believed women deserved knowledge, preparation, and the ability to protect themselves. One woman became another. Then another. What began as a desire to help became a career. And eventually, a calling. Tori has now trained more than 14,000 women.

THE UNVEILER

Tori became more concerned about protection in a larger sense. She saw a country wrestling with division, political violence, radicalization, and competing visions for America’s future. She eventually took a run at political office.

And somewhere along that journey, another piece of her calling became clear: Defend America against the rise of Islam and the existential threat it poses.

She and her online audiences awoke to a self-loving and real fear of what this political and military movement has destroyed in countless other nations, and is already doing here.

Radical Islamist movements take advantage of religious freedom and generosity, while also exploiting the failures of our capitalism. They use social programs to grow their influence, organize voting blocs to gain political power, and they cannot be trusted at their word as they are taught to lie and steal from non-Muslims. The worlds they create are anti-women, anti-gay, anti-love.

Women in America have a vital role to play in protecting ALL women from this threat.

ARMED & UNVEILED

That conviction became Armed & Unveiled.

At its heart is one simple teaching of Jesus:
Love your neighbor as yourself.

Tori’s vision is to bring women and the men who love them, of different faiths and backgrounds, together around that common Christ principle. To encourage people to remain spiritually awake, informed, prepared, and willing to sacrifice to protect their communities from the extremism and threat Islam poses.

Not through hatred.
Through courageous policy.

Not through wasted division.
Through love for truth.

Not through fear.
Through preparation and wisdom.