Ted Nugent flips out over calls for more gun control, misinformation

July 25, 2012

Writer

Glenn spoke with fervent 2nd Amendment supporter Ted Nugent on radio today because Ted is fired up about all the misinformation being spewed on the media about current laws, assault rifles and more. What are they getting wrong? And what does Ted think is the answer?

Full Transcript below:

GLENN: Let me go to Ted Nugent. Jeez. Another angry gun‑toting white guy.

PAT: Mmm‑hmmm.

GLENN: Ted?

NUGENT: Greetings, Glenn, from the greatest rhythm and blues rock‑and‑roll tour in the history of noise.

GLENN: Where are you today?

NUGENT: I'm in the swamps of Jackson, Michigan, cleansing my soul prior to heading for Wisconsin to continue the rock‑and‑roll celebration.

GLENN: Okay. Now, do you have to cleanse your soul after Wisconsin?

NUGENT: I do it daily anyhow, whether I need it or not.

GLENN: Okay. Just, I didn't know. Some people just cleanse their soul on, you know, Saturdays or Sundays.

NUGENT: I wash my hair on Saturday.

GLENN: Okay. Good. Ted, you have been ‑‑ and I'm sorry that I haven't had a chance to return any of your phone calls this week. It's been nuts because of the thing that we're doing this weekend, but you ‑‑ I believe you are close to a brain aneurysm on this story coming out of Aurora, Colorado.

NUGENT: Well, yes. Number one, I can't go further without saying that the Nugent family and everybody I know, I mean literally everybody says prayers for the victims and their families in the face of such a tragedy, but now we need to go on to the vile intentional misrepresentation of what did happen. And I think as soon as you can, Glenn, you need to talk to your friend Bill O'Reilly because I've never heard such nonsense in all my life and I think it epitomizes the ignorance out there when Bill O'Reilly states as a fact that anybody can go buy a bazooka and a machine gun without the government knowing it unless, of course, you're in the crips and the bloods. My God in heaven, since 1934 machine guns ‑‑ by the way, bazookas are not available this week and they never have been.

GLENN: Really?

NUGENT: But to buy a machine gun, you have to go through such a vetting, such a federal BATF and local law enforcement, national law enforcement review, background check, fill out all kinds of documents and buy a $200 transfer tax certificate per purchase if they allow it. So this kind of information is just looney. And let me state as if fact that I know for a fact that most of the damage done by this devil in Aurora was done with the number one pheasant shotgun in the world, a Remington 870. His AR‑15 Smith & Wesson rifle is now the most popular sporting rifle in America. It is the number one competition, number one in self‑defense, it's the number one sporting rifle for big game and small game. And if they keep calling it an assault weapon, I may have that aneurysm.

GLENN: You know why they call it that? Because of the way it looks. That's it. Because of ‑‑ I was out shooting, what, two weeks ago and that's exactly ‑‑ that's the gun we were using. And we were target practice. I mean, that is the gun we would use. If I was going hunting, that would be the gun that I would use.

NUGENT: Oh, and most sporters do but let me ‑‑ you talk about the way it looks. Dianne Feinstein and her ‑‑ by the way, Dianne Feinstein who's just literally going berserk on the misinformation about the weapons and the ammunition. This is the woman who had a concealed weapons permit but denied California citizens the right to have a concealed weapons permit. She demonized the concept of concealed weapon permit when she had one, Glenn, and she sat in a room with a friend of mine who will remain unnamed, unidentified, a Democrat congressman from one of my favorite states and she took out a copy of shotgun news. This is a publication that, you know, lists the different types of firearms available, legal firearms, and she got out a Sharpie and circled the ones she wanted banned in the original assault weapon ban and she circled ones that were black with folding stocks when, in fact, the exact same weapon, exact same rate of fire, exact same caliber, everything was the same but it was made out of wood. She didn't want to ban those. This is lunacy. And remember, Glenn, this monster in Aurora took 20 minutes to do his evil. In 20 minutes you don't need an assault weapon, you don't need a machine gun, which he didn't have either of, but you could do more damage with a single shot or a bolt action because he had 20 minutes.

GLENN: You know, here's the thing. If ‑‑ and nobody I hear is talking about this except people like us: If you had more people carrying a weapon. If people had a gun in their back and they were ‑‑ and they were licensed to carry it, that guy wouldn't have gotten off more than four shots.

NUGENT: And I'm sure you've covered it because there was a shooting like that in a church in Aurora this year earlier.

GLENN: Yep.

NUGENT: That was stopped because the guy had a gun. And I know the hysteria about teargas and it was dark in the theater. Glenn, I am not making this up. Last week my wife Shemane and I were filming a segment for our Spirit of the Wild show and we were shooting at watermelons surrounded by human silhouette targets just as kind of a competition and from 20 feet and from 20 yards and we were shooting from every imaginable angle, undercover, from sitting, from squatting, from prone position, from behind cover and from in the open, and we never hit an innocent and we never missed the watermelon. And I'm just a guitar player. If a guitar player can neutralize a watermelon from 20 feet ‑‑ and this is with live fire, by the way.

GLENN: Do you ‑‑

NUGENT: We would shoot while the other would take the target shots. So there was that tension of live fire. And this was done in a scenario ‑‑ and I understand it wasn't real bullets coming at us and it wasn't people screaming, running around.

GLENN: Please.

NUGENT: But dear God in heaven, doing nothing is not an option. Training, having a firearm to neutralize an evil gun maniac is a way to go, and we train for that. And I wish is I would have been in the theater that day.

GLENN: So do I. So do I.

NUGENT: Glenn, I don't mean to monopolize here, but heroism, warrior action was performed that day by men who dove in the line of fire to save their loved ones. They were a warrior but they were unarmed warriors.

GLENN: Look. Ted, this is the same story over and over and over again, and you know as well as I do one of the safest countries in the world is Switzerland. Because you're required to have an automatic weapon.

NUGENT: A real machine gun.

GLENN: Right. You're required to have it. Why? Because they know. The best way to defend ‑‑ why do you think Switzerland is never overrun? Because they're all defended ‑‑ every home is defended by the people in the home. And let's look at Chicago. Play the audio from Chicago, will you, Pat? Listen to this audio from Chicago. And nobody's talking about this. Here's a city that's got gun control out the wazoo.

NUGENT: It's a gun‑free zone.

GLENN: Yeah. Listen to the audio here.

VOICE: Six people are shot within 15 minutes on the city's south side. One teenager is dead.

REPORTER: Nancy Lou is at area two police headquarters. She has details.

REPORTER: The city's homicide rate is up by about 39% so far this year. Faith leaders called for a stop to the gun violence, and one pastor said bluntly, "We are tired of doing funerals." Community activist Andrew Holmes is also urging local radio stations to stop playing gangsta rap music which he believes has only encouraged all this shooting and killing.

GLENN: Of course it has. I mean, Ted, you know, does music affect people?

NUGENT: God knows it affects me, but in a beautifully positive way.

GLENN: Right.

NUGENT: And it does affect people negatively. If you talk about crime and you celebrate crime and you glorify, you know, evil and criminal activity, yeah. And it's been going on for years now.

GLENN: And nobody's talking about that. Nobody on the ‑‑ nobody in the news. They're talking about gun control, gun control, gun control. I'm not talking about music control. I'm not talking about movie control. I'm saying, can you recognize that that plays a role? Nobody ‑‑ you should be licensed. You should be licensed to make a movie. You should be licensed to make music. How ridiculous is that?

NUGENT: It's all ridiculous. Well, bottom line is Chicago is a gun‑free zone but Rahm Emanuel like Mayor Daley uses tax dollars from citizens who they force into unarmed helplessness to pay for their armed security detail. This is unbelievable.

GLENN: Okay.

NUGENT: And more people should join the NRA.

GLENN: Okay.

NUGENT: More people should do their homework about real firearms and real legality of firearms and ammunition. Everything reported about this shooter and his so‑called armor‑piercing ammo. And remember, Glenn, they wanted to ban hollow points because it does too much damage. Well, hollow points won't go through the walls because they're ‑‑ because they disrupt in the target. There's so much inform ‑‑ misinformation out there that I pray to God you'll talk to Bill O'Reilly because his ‑‑

GLENN: I'm on his show tomorrow night.

NUGENT: He's screaming that people can go to the local florist and buy a bazooka.

STU: (Laughing.)

GLENN: Okay, Ted, let me change subjects real quick. I would like you ‑‑ and just shoot me an e‑mail on this. I want you to go to TheBlaze.com and I want you to read the story on the East River monster. This is, there's three pictures of this thing. Have you guys seen this on The Blaze yet? There are three pictures of this animal that has washed up on shore from the East River and I ‑‑ and nobody knows what animal this is. I don't ‑‑ and you know animals. Maybe you'll know. It is the freakiest looking animal I've ever seen. You see that, Stu?

STU: I'm going there now, though.

GLENN: It's a freak ‑‑

NUGENT: I will freak it out because I love freakish animals, especially with garlic and butter.

GLENN: No, you don't want to eat this one. If you have any idea, maybe it's a dog? But it's ‑‑ it doesn't look like a dog. I mean, it has fingers.

STU: They had one of these that came out recently, though, and it was proven to be a fake, right? I mean, I don't believe it. The Montauk monster. That's what it was. And that one wasn't real.

GLENN: Well ‑‑

STU: Right?

GLENN: I don't know. I don't ‑‑ this looks pretty ‑‑ I mean, this is freaky looking.

STU: That is really, really ‑‑

GLENN: Very spooky.

NUGENT: If you want to save strange animals, be sure you open a hunting season on them and then we will manage them for maximum productivity.

GLENN: Ted, thanks very much. I'll talk to you soon, my friend.

NUGENT: Ytah, God speed, Glenn. Carry on, my friend.

GLENN: Have a good rest of the tour.

Media cover-up: Why Clinton deported six times more than Trump

Genaro Molina / Contributor | Getty Images

MSNBC and CNN want you to think the president is a new Hitler launching another Holocaust. But the actual deportation numbers are nowhere near what they claim.

Former MSNBC host Chris Matthews, in an interview with CNN’s Jim Acosta, compared Trump’s immigration policies to Adolf Hitler’s Holocaust. He claimed that Hitler didn’t bother with German law — he just hauled people off to death camps in Poland and Hungary. Apparently, that’s what Trump is doing now by deporting MS-13 gang members to El Salvador.

Symone Sanders took it a step further. The MSNBC host suggested that deporting gang-affiliated noncitizens is simply the first step toward deporting black Americans. I’ll wait while you try to do that math.

The debate is about control — weaponizing the courts, twisting language, and using moral panic to silence dissent.

Media mouthpieces like Sanders and Matthews are just the latest examples of the left’s Pavlovian tribalism when it comes to Trump and immigration. Just say the word “Trump,” and people froth at the mouth before they even hear the sentence. While the media cries “Hitler,” the numbers say otherwise. And numbers don’t lie — the narrative does.

Numbers don’t lie

The real “deporter in chief” isn’t Trump. It was President Bill Clinton, who sent back 12.3 million people during his presidency — 11.4 million returns and nearly 900,000 formal removals. President George W. Bush, likewise, presided over 10.3 million deportations — 8.3 million returns and two million removals. Even President Barack Obama, the progressive darling, oversaw 5.5 million deportations, including more than three million formal removals.

So how does Donald Trump stack up? Between 2017 and 2021, Trump deported somewhere between 1.5 million and two million people — dramatically fewer than Obama, Bush, or Clinton. In his current term so far, Trump has deported between 100,000 and 138,000 people. Yes, that’s assertive for a first term — but it's still fewer than Biden was deporting toward the end of his presidency.

The numbers simply don’t support the hysteria.

Who's the “dictator” here? Trump is deporting fewer people, with more legal oversight, and still being compared to history’s most reviled tyrant. Apparently, sending MS-13 gang members — violent criminals — back to their country of origin is now equivalent to genocide.

It’s not about immigration

This debate stopped being about immigration a long time ago. It’s now about control — about weaponizing the courts, twisting language, and using moral panic to silence dissent. It’s about turning Donald Trump into the villain of every story, facts be damned.

If the numbers mattered, we’d be having a very different national conversation. We’d be asking why Bill Clinton deported six times as many people as Trump and never got labeled a fascist. We’d be questioning why Barack Obama’s record-setting removals didn’t spark cries of ethnic cleansing. And we’d be wondering why Trump, whose enforcement was relatively modest by comparison, triggered lawsuits, media hysteria, and endless Nazi analogies.

But facts don’t drive this narrative. The villain does. And in this script, Trump plays the villain — even when he does far less than the so-called heroes who came before him.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Exposed: America’s ancient power grid is a national security disaster

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If America wants to remain a global leader in the coming decades, we need more energy fast.

It's no secret that Glenn is an advocate for the safe and ethical use of AI, not because he wants it, but because he knows it’s coming whether we like it or not. Our only option is to shape AI on our terms, not those of our adversaries. America has to win the AI Race if we want to maintain our stability and security, and to do that, we need more energy.

AI demands dozens—if not hundreds—of new server farms, each requiring vast amounts of electricity. The problem is, America lacks the power plants to generate the required electricity, nor do we have a power grid capable of handling the added load. We must overcome these hurdles quickly to outpace China and other foreign competitors.

Outdated Power Grid

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Our power grid is ancient, slowly buckling under the stress of our modern machines. AAI’s energy demands could collapse it without a major upgrade. The last significant overhaul occurred under FDR nearly a century ago, when he connected rural America to electricity. Since then, we’ve patched the system piecemeal, but it’s still the same grid from the 1930s. Over 70 percent of the powerlines are 30 years old or older, and circuit breakers and other vital components are in similar condition. Most people wouldn't trust a dishwasher that was 30 years old, and yet much of our grid relies on technology from the era of VHS tapes.

Upgrading the grid would prevent cascading failures, rolling blackouts, and even EMP attacks. It would also enable new AI server farms while ensuring reliable power for all.

A Need for Energy

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Earlier this month, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt appeared before Congress as part of an AI panel and claimed that by 2030, the U.S. will need to add 96 gigawatts to our national power production to meet AI-driven demand. While some experts question this figure, the message is clear: We must rapidly expand power production. But where will this energy come from?

As much as eco nuts would love to power the world with sunshine and rainbows, we need a much more reliable and significantly more efficient power source if we want to meet our electricity goals. Nuclear power—efficient, powerful, and clean—is the answer. It’s time to shed outdated fears of atomic energy and embrace the superior electricity source. Building and maintaining new nuclear plants, along with upgraded infrastructure, would create thousands of high-paying American jobs. Nuclear energy will fuel AI, boost the economy, and modernize America’s decaying infrastructure.

A Bold Step into the Future

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This is President Trump’s chance to leave a historic mark on America, restoring our role as global leaders and innovators. Just as FDR’s power grid and plants made America the dominant force of the 20th century, Trump could upgrade our infrastructure to secure dominance in the 21st century. Visionary leadership must cut red tape and spark excitement in the industry. This is how Trump can make America great again.

POLL: Is K2-18b proof of alien LIFE in the cosmos?

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Are we alone in the universe?

It's no secret that Glenn keeps one eye on the cosmos, searching for any signs of ET. Late last week, a team of astronomers at the University of Cambridge made an exciting discovery that could change how we view the universe. The astronomers were monitoring a distant planet, K2-18b, when the James Webb Space Telescope detected dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide, two atmospheric gases believed only to be generated by living organisms. The planet, which is just over two and a half times larger than Earth, orbits within the "habitable zone" of its star, meaning the presence of liquid water on its surface is possible, further supporting the possibility that life exists on this distant world.

Unfortunately, humans won't be able to visit K2-18b to see for ourselves anytime soon, as the planet is about 124 light-years from Earth. This means that even if we had rockets that could travel at the speed of light, it would still take 124 years to reach the potentially verdant planet. Even if humans made the long trek to K2-18b, they would be faced with an even more intense challenge upon arrival: Gravity. Assuming K2-18b has a similar density to Earth, its increased size would also mean it would have increased gravity, two and a half times as much gravity, to be exact. This would make it very difficult, if not impossible, for humans to live or explore the surface without serious technological support. But who knows, give Elon Musk and SpaceX a few years, and we might be ready to seek out new life (and maybe even new civilizations).

But Glenn wants to know what you think. Could K2-18b harbor life on its distant surface? Could alien astronomers be peering back at us from across the cosmos? Would you be willing to boldly go where no man has gone before? Let us know in the poll below:

Could there be life on K2-18b?

Could there be an alien civilization thriving on K2-18b?

Will humans develop the technology to one day explore distant worlds?

Would you sign up for a trip to an alien world?

Is K2-18b just another cold rock in space?

Big Pharma’s role in rising neurological disorders: Will RFK Jr. uncover the truth?

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

Our children are sick, and Big Pharma claims to be the cure, but is RFK Jr. closer to proving they are the disease?

For years, neurological disorders in our children have been on the rise. One in nine children in the U.S. has been diagnosed with ADHD, and between 2016 and 2022, more than one million kids were told they suffer from the disorder. Similarly, autism diagnoses have increased by 175 percent over the past decade. RFK Jr. pledged to investigate the rising rates of neurological disorders as Secretary of Health and Human Services, and this week, he announced a major initiative.

Earlier this week, RFK Jr. announced that the HHS has embarked on a massive testing and research effort to uncover the root causes of autism and the sharp spike in recent diagnoses. The HHS Secretary vowed that the results will be available by September of this year, leaving many skeptical about the study's rigor. Conversely, some speculate that the HHS may have unpublished studies revealing critical insights into these disorders, just waiting to see the light of day.

Glenn brought up a recent article by the Daily Wire referencing a New York Times piece in which experts questioned the legitimacy of ADHD diagnoses. Glenn agreed and suggested that people are just wired differently; they learn, work, and study differently, and the cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all school system simply fails to accommodate everyone.

New York Times' ADHD Admission

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Earlier this week, the New York Times published an article that made a shocking admission: there are no concrete biological markers for ADHD. The clinical definition of ADHD is no longer supported by the evidence, and there are no physical, genetic, or chemical identifiers for the disorder, nor is there any real way to test for it. The paper also admitted that people diagnosed with ADHD would suddenly find that they no longer had any symptoms after a change of environment, profession, or field of study. This suggests that "ADHD" might simply be a matter of interests and skills, not a chronic brain sickness.

The most horrifying implication of this admission is that millions of people, including children, have been prescribed heavy mind-altering drugs for years for a disorder that lacks real evidence of its very existence. These drugs are serious business and include products such as Adderall, Ritalin, and Desoxyn. All of these drugs are considered "Schedule II," which is a drug classification that puts them on the same level as cocaine, PCP, and fentanyl. Notably, Desoxyn is chemically identical to methamphetamine, differing only in its production in regulated laboratories rather than illegal settings.

Worse yet, studies show that these medications, like Desoxyn, often provide no long-term benefits. Testing demonstrated that in the short term, there were some positive effects, but after 36 months, there was no discernible difference in symptoms between people who were medicated and those who were not. For decades, we have been giving our children hardcore drugs with no evidence of them working or even that the disorder exists.

RFK Jr's Autism Study

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Autism rates are on the rise, and RFK Jr. is going to get to the bottom of it. In the year 2000, approximately one in 150 children was diagnosed with autism, but only 20 years later, the rate had increased to one in 36. While some claim that this is simply due to more accurate testing, RFK Jr. doesn't buy it and is determined to discover what is the underlying cause. He is an outspoken critic of vaccines, asserting that the true scope of their side effects has been buried by greed and corruption to sell more vaccines.

RFK Jr. doesn't plan on stopping at vaccines. Similar to ADHD, RFK Jr. suspects other environmental factors could increase of autism or exacerbate symptoms. Factors like diet, water quality, air pollution, and parenting approaches are all under investigation. It's time to bring clarity to the neurological disorders that plague our nation, cut through the corruption, and reveal the healing truth.

Neurological Intervention

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Big Pharma has been all too happy to sit back and watch as the rate of neurological disorders climbs, adding to the ever-growing list of permanent patients who are led to believe that their only choice is to shell out endless money for treatments, prescriptions, and doctor visits. Rather than encouraging lifestyle changes to improve our well-being, they push ongoing medication and costly treatments.

All RFK Jr. is doing is asking questions, and yet the backlash from the "experts" is so immense that one can't help but wonder what they could be hiding. Both Glenn and RFK Jr. have their suspicions of Big Pharma, and the upcoming HHS study might be one of the most important steps to making America healthy again.

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