You seem to be using an older version of Internet Explorer. This site requires Internet Explorer 8 or higher. Update your browser here today to fully enjoy all the marvels of this site.
Rocker-turned-gun rights provocateur Ted Nugent is willing to say just about anything to attack President Barack Obama and his administration for what he believes is an imminent effort by the government to snatch up guns. During a recent interview, Nugent again raised the bar, invoking a Revolutionary war milestone to suggest that he and his "buddies" were prepared to fight such an effort at all costs.
"I'm part of a very great experiment in self-government where we the people determine our own pursuit of happiness and our own individual freedom and liberty, not to be confused with the Barack Obama gang who believes in we the sheeple and actually is attempting to re-implement the tyranny of King George that we escaped from in 1776," Nugent said in a recent interview with Guns.com at the NBC-sponsored Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show. "And if you want another Concord Bridge, I got some buddies."
Nugent appears to be referring to the beginning of the Revolutionary war, when colonial and British troops assembled at the North Bridge in Concord, Mass. in 1775 broke a standoff when one soldier opened fire. While it's still unclear which side fired the first shot, it was later immortalized by poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, who suggested that "the shot heard 'round the world" was fired by an American.
In his interview, Nugent went on to accuse Obama of having communist ties, suggesting that gun-owning Americans needed to do something to "fix" the fact that he was president.
"The president of the United States goes to the Vietnam Memorial Wall and pretends to honor 58,000 American heroes who died fighting communism and then he hires, appoints and associates with communists," Nugent said. "He pretends to pay honor to men who died fighting communism, and then he hangs out with, hires and appoints communists. He is an evil, dangerous man who hates America and hates freedom. And we need to fix this as soon as possible."
(Watch a clip from Nugent's interview above, clipped by Media Matters)
Nugent has been one of the most fiery voices in the pro-gun movement in the wake of the December mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., in which 26 people, including 20 young children, were killed.
Earlier this month he called Obama's proposals to combat gun violence "psychotic" and "dangerously anti-American." He'd earlier predicted that gun owners would have a "Rosa Parks" moment in an effort to resist gun restrictions.
While Nugent's inflammatory rhetoric is indicative of a segment of gun owners who appear convinced that any gun control efforts are simply a precursor to a larger government gun-grab, such a tone has also been adopted by more mainstream Republican lawmakers.
Over the weekend, the campaign of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blasted out a frenzied fundraising email, telling supporters that they were "literally surrounded" by "gun-grabbers in the Senate" who were "coming for" their guns.
I'm ready for a revolution. I'm embarassed for my grandkids to know that I'm responsible for the mess we're in. The least I can do is try to right it and I'll do anything I can to promote a government for ALL people to live under. It's awfully hard to revolt because you have to give up everything...
I'm ready for a revolution. I'm embarassed for my grandkids to know that I'm responsible for the mess we're in. The least I can do is try to right it and I'll do anything I can to promote a government for ALL people to live under. It's awfully hard to revolt because you have to give up everything. Your home, family and probably your life. But those who came before did it so that we could live free and we owe it to the younger generations to give them the opportunity to live in a free country.
It's awfully hard to revolt because you have to give up everything...