Gun-rights advocates ‘done with’ Ted Nugent
Some want him off NRA board
Gun owners are pressuring the National Rifle Association to boot longtime board member Ted Nugent from the organization’s leadership ranks after the rock star’s social media outburst that depicted prominent American Jews as the men and women “rea l ly behind gun control.”
Nugent, an outspoken Second Amendment advocate, posted a photo on Facebook this week calling Sen. Dianne F einstein, D-Calif., “Jew York City Mayor Mikey Bloomberg,” former senator Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, among many others, “punks” who would “deny us the basic human right to self defense and to keep and bear arms while many of them have paid hired armed security.”
The Israeli flag appears over or next to each of the 12 faces in the photo, which is the same one that has been shared many times in white supremacist circles, according to the AntiDefamation League.
Nugent’s post revived the meme, prompting anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi groups to encourage him.
He later posted a photo of Nazis rounding up Jews during the Holocaust and described guncontrol advocates as “soulless
sheep to slaughter.”
Nugent’ s Facebook posts triggered cries of anti-Semitism and prompted gun-control activists and Second Amendment advocates alike to call for his removal from NRA’s board of directors, as even several leading voices in the gun-rights movement say they can no longer justify his “half-baked rhetoric” and “simple-minded outbursts.”
The “Cat Scratch Fever” singer has served on the NRA board since 1995.
An NRA spokeswoman told The Washington Post on Wednesday that “individual board members do not speak for the NRA.”
Nugent’ s comments have landed him in trouble in the past. He has targeted the Supreme Court, Trayvon Martin and Hillary Clinton.
He once called President Obama a “sub-human mongrel” — a nd then apologized. (Even Nugent’ s own brother said he’d “clearly crossed a line.”)
But he has shown no remorse this time, even as other gun rights activists have taken to publicly criticizing him.
Bob Owens, editor for BearingArms.com, wrote online Tuesday that Nugent should have rea lized that he “stepped in it” when “even-tempered pro-gun folks took issue” with his Facebook posts.
I nstead , Nugent re - hashed his point in another post — comparing Jewish gun-control advocates to Nazis.
“What sort of racist prejudiced POS could possibly not know that Jews for gun control are Nazis in disguise?” Nugent wrote.
Owens said many gun rights advocates are now “simply done with Nu- gent.”
“They’re tired of feeling that they have to defend his half-baked rhetoric and simple-minded outbursts,” Owens wrote on Bearing Ar ms.com . “Many people are calling for him to resign from the NRA Board and for him to have his membership stripped from him.
In fact, many gun owners who once supported Nugent seem to have changed their minds. His recent Facebook posts are littered with negative comments suggesting that he may have gone too far.
Anti-Defamation League Director Jonathan Greenblatt said Nugent’s comments were “nothing short of conspiratorial anti-Semitism.”