Impact
Posted by Ted Bronson | Filed under Shooting Sports
I met Ted Nugent yesterday. Not in a literal, handshaking kind of way, but in a ‘finally understanding the man’ kind of way.
He was on a, brace yourself, political talk radio show speaking about guns.
I had heard of Mr. Nugent my whole life and all I really knew about him was that he was a musician who was a big gun rights supporter. I never really even listened to his music. But he summed up for me in plain and simple words the very essence of what the anti-gun crowd doesn’t understand. I wish I could have recorded it. I will try to reproduce what he said. Keep in mind this isn’t a quote, but I am putting it blockquote format for emphasis:
I don’t need a piece of paper or a court to tell me, a free citizen of a free country, that I can’t defend myself or my family while at the same time forcing me to pay for an armed security force to come along and clean up after something goes wrong. The most basic thing that makes me free and safe is my ability to protect myself from those who would try to take away my liberty or my life.
I do not do Mr. Nugent’s words justice. He was on the air for sixteen minutes. And I mean he was ON. He said things that I have believed and fought for my whole life. He spoke the Truth, capital “T” in words that I could only hope to emulate. He wasn’t bombastic or crude or angry, just passionate and logical. He knows facts and stats off the top of his head, sure. But he also related them to the real world.
I’m not saying that I am going to run out and join the NRA, or even buy one of his albums; but the man left an impression on me.
I am now going to link to his website. Here.
Carry on.
Update from Hazel: Yes, I am the Queen of the Gotdamn Internets. Click here for the Nugent interview.
And just for fun, Stranglehold:
Tags: 2nd amendment, guns are good, protect thyself
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March 20th, 2008
Join the NRA. It’s the best $35 you can spend to secure your personal liberties. And that goes beyond firearms. My brother is a lifetime member, and he doesn’t even own a gun. But he does know that the 2nd Amendment is our most important safeguard for personal freedom.
Email me an address, and the first year’s on me.
March 20th, 2008
You could do worse than taking a listen to his album “Cat Scratch Fever” — it has a certain cathartic affect when played at loud volumes.
March 20th, 2008
Join the NRA, the GOA, the JPFO, your choice, amigo. But get with the civil rights movement. Self-defense IS a civil right and the government should NOT have a monopoly on arms. I kind of like how Andrew Fletcher said it in 1732 … “And not only that government is tyrannical, which is tyrannically exercised; but all governments are tyrannical, which have not in their constitution a sufficient security against the arbitrary power of the prince.”
That is what it is all about folks – checks and balances are required where the people put their trust. Power to the government? Yep, enough to do the job. Retained power by the people to keep the government accountable? Yep, and we need to be sure we have more than enough to do the job. A despot should know that they will lose, rather than that they have a fighting chance. Don’t give a Caesar an opportunity.
March 20th, 2008
[...] Via Ted Bronson. [...]
March 20th, 2008
[...] Nugent on why gun ownership is important (via The Line is Here), who introduced Nugent’s quote as such: “…he summed up for me in plain and [...]
March 20th, 2008
I don’t have an aversion or an animosity to the NRA or those other groups, because I believe at their core they do believe as I do; that the rights are not given by the government, but the Constitution is merely our tool to tell the government what they are not allowed to screw with in regards to our liberty. I ain’t sitting her whistling in the dark either. We are trying to do our very tiny part to help ourselves and our neighbors and friends stand up to government at ALL levels to tell these servants of the people that we the people are the ones they should be serving, and to stop thinking of us as servants to the State.
What I was trying to say was that Mr. Nugent just perfectly stated the truth in a manner that reached me at a cellular level. Said it in a way that resonated. He owned the microphone and the message.
I try to do my own research on everything. I will begin anew with the NRA. I have a memory from the far mists of childhood of Dad ranting that the NRA was using his dues for ‘making deals with the damn pussies in Washington’ rather than fighting them and they would never see another damn dime of his, so that may be the source of my apprehension. Does anyone know if that kind of thing has been a problem in the past and if so how it was resolved? Or at least why someone might think so? (Keeping in mind that my father was a cop for a lot of years so may have a different POV than a civilian.)
RKV, believe me when I say that understand my rights. I am all for keeping guns to defend my home and my country, from ALL enemies foreign or domestic. That includes (and always has) those within my own government who would betray the public trust.
March 20th, 2008
Yeah, it has been a problem with the NRA, and many folks think it still is to a real extent. The NRA, for instance, for quite a while opposed taking Heller to the SCOTUS.
I belong to the GOA myself, as they have been unwavering in drawing the line and refusing to compromise our basic Second Amendment rights.
March 20th, 2008
My favorite way to put it (forgot who said it) was that not only is the right to defend yourself the right of every living thing – and therefore precedes the freedom of speech – but it exists not in spite of the fact that there are people who don’t like it, but precisely because there are people who don’t like it.
March 21st, 2008
The Nuge is hilarious and, more often than not, right. His very short stint at National Review wasn’t a good fit, but it provided more entertainment than the couple of articles might have suggested.
What he says there is so completely True (I agree–it deserves a capital “T”) that it amazes me that so many of my friends just don’t get it. Don’t even understand the point. I’ve tried to put that same set of thoughts into words, but it’s never come out quite so convincingly.
There’s nothing wrong with joining the NRA, from my point of view, but my own expression of belief in my own right to own guns is by owning guns. Throughout my adult life, I have never not owned a rifle or a handgun or both. Exercising my right (sometimes regardless of local statutes) is my favorite way of protecting and maintaining my rights.
But with the exception of “Stranglehold” and “Cat Scratch Fever”, I don’t dig Nugent’s music. I’ll have to make do with his drive-by political thoughts instead.
Thanks for sharing (and thanks to Hazel for finding the audio).
March 21st, 2008
http://brunelleschispeepshow.blogspot.com/2007/11/second-amendment.html
I have a video at my blog of him giving a 2 minute talk on gun rights. It is the most cogent, concise well-reasoned two minutes I’ve ever seen. From a Texas Monthly web interview
March 21st, 2008
This is my favorite Ted Nugent moment. He’s never been clearer about his stance on the value of firearms.
March 21st, 2008
“Does anyone know if that kind of thing has been a problem in the past and if so how it was resolved?”
Richard Feldman’s Ricochet: Confessions of a Gun Lobbyist, just out this year, is about that very topic.
NRA wimpiness is why we have the GOA and JPFA. They’re all doing good work in one way or another.
March 21st, 2008
I’ll never forget his show, where he took over-privileged 20-somethings and made them survive on his ranch. One episode, he taught them to use a bow and arrow; the glint in their formerly vapid eyes as they exploded the targets was all you needed to see.
Self-empowerment is a universal constant. Tyrants hate it, and only a few truly transcendent politicians are unafraid of it.
(Which leaves out Obama, Clinton, and McCain. ::sigh::)
March 21st, 2008
When I was in high school we spent almost half a year studying the Peloponesian War. In the aftermath of it, after Athens surrendered unconditionally to Sparta, the Spartans demolished the Athenian fortifications and rounded up the weapons of the Athenians. My teacher said that this had a practical as well as a symbolic reason. As she put it “a man who cannot defend himself is not a free man”.
Regards,
George
March 21st, 2008
George – I recall high-school history and it was NOTHING like that interesting. Dammit.
Joan – Find your happy place. *cries*
Zomby – Like Dennis Miller on…well, anywhere other than HBO.
March 21st, 2008
Da Nuge’s latest album is pretty good as well. The man actually stands up for what he believes in rather than whatever is “with it” at the time.
March 21st, 2008
[...] The Nuge Speaks: to paraphrase, “We don’t need no steeenkin’ piece of paper!” (via Zombyboy) [...]
March 22nd, 2008
Well recently in addition to the opposition of Heller the NRA worked with gun control activists on the veterans disarmament act, I mean the NICS improvement act. They are nowhere to be found when presumably innocent people have problems with the ATF (e.g. Olofson, Cavalry Arms) not to mention their history.
I was a member of the NRA for one year and swore to never send them another thin dime until they changed their ways and actually stood up for the 2nd Amendment. Sadly, it increasingly appeas that the NRA has no problem with infringements of the 2nd A as the constant fear allows them power, prestige and an endless ability to raise funds.
March 24th, 2008
[...] minute interview here.Salute to the blog: The Line is Here > An anti-nanny state collective > "Impact" by Ted Bronson Published Monday, March 24, 2008 12:21 PM by [...]