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Glenn's Show Prep

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

July 25, 2012
Wilson

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.

U.K. forces digital IDs on workers—Is the U.S. next in line?

OLI SCARFF / Contributor | Getty Images

From banking to health care, digital IDs touch every aspect of citizens’ lives, giving the government unprecedented control over everyday actions.

On Friday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stood at the podium at the Global Progressive Action Conference in London and made an announcement that should send a chill down the spine of anyone who loves liberty. By the end of this Parliament, he promised, every worker in the U.K. will be required to hold a “free-of-charge” digital ID. Without it, Britons will not be able to work.

No digital ID, no job.

The government is introducing a system that punishes law-abiding citizens by tying their right to work to a government-issued pass.

Starmer framed this as a commonsense response to poverty, climate change, and illegal immigration. He claimed Britain cannot solve these problems without “looking upstream” and tackling root causes. But behind the rhetoric lies a policy that shifts power away from individuals and places it squarely in the hands of government.

Solving the problem they created

This is progressivism in action. Leaders open their borders, invite in mass illegal immigration, and refuse to enforce their own laws. Then, when public frustration boils over, they unveil a prepackaged “solution” — in this case, digital identity — that entrenches government control.

Britain isn’t the first to embrace this system. Switzerland recently approved a digital ID system. Australia already has one. The World Economic Forum has openly pitched digital IDs as the key to accessing everything from health care to bank accounts to travel. And once the infrastructure is in place, digital currency will follow soon after, giving governments the power to track every purchase, approve or block transactions, and dictate where and how you spend your money.

All of your data — your medical history, insurance, banking, food purchases, travel, social media engagement, tax information — would be funneled into a centralized database under government oversight.

The fiction of enforcement

Starmer says this is about cracking down on illegal work. The BBC even pressed him on the point, asking why a mandatory digital ID would stop human traffickers and rogue employers who already ignore national insurance cards. He had no answer.

Bad actors will still break the law. Bosses who pay sweatshop wages under the table will not suddenly check digital IDs. Criminals will not line up to comply. This isn’t about stopping illegal immigration. If it were, the U.K. would simply enforce existing laws, close the loopholes, and deport those working illegally.

Instead, the government is introducing a system that punishes law-abiding citizens by tying their right to work to a government-issued pass.

Control masked as compassion

This is part of an old playbook. Politicians claim their hands are tied and promise that only sweeping new powers will solve the crisis. They selectively enforce laws to maintain the problem, then use the problem to justify expanding control.

If Britain truly wanted to curb illegal immigration, it could. It is an island. The Channel Tunnel has clear entry points. Enforcement is not impossible. But a digital ID allows for something far more valuable to bureaucrats than border security: total oversight of their own citizens.

The American warning

Think digital ID can’t happen here? Think again. The same arguments are already echoing in Washington, D.C. Illegal immigration is out of control. Progressives know voters are angry. When the digital ID pitch arrives, it will be wrapped in patriotic language about fairness, security, and compassion.

But the goal isn’t compassion. It’s control of your movement, your money, your speech, your future.

We don’t need digital IDs to enforce immigration law. We need leaders with the courage to enforce existing law. Until then, digital ID schemes will keep spreading, sold as a cure for the very problems they helped create.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The West is dying—Will we let enemies write our ending?

Harvey Meston / Staff | Getty Images

The blood of martyrs, prophets, poets, and soldiers built our civilization. Their sacrifice demands courage in the present to preserve it.

Lamentations asks, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?”

That question has been weighing on me heavily. Not just as a broadcaster, but as a citizen, a father, a husband, a believer. It is a question that every person who cares about this nation, this culture, and this civilization must confront: Is all of this worth saving?

We have squandered this inheritance. We forgot who we were — and our enemies are eager to write our ending.

Western civilization — a project born in Judea, refined in Athens, tested in Rome, reawakened in Wittenberg, and baptized again on the shores of Plymouth Rock — is a gift. We didn’t earn it. We didn’t purchase it. We were handed it. And now, we must ask ourselves: Do we even want it?

Across Europe, streets are restless. Not merely with protests, but with ancient, festering hatred — the kind that once marched under swastikas and fueled ovens. Today, it marches under banners of peace while chanting calls for genocide. Violence and division crack societies open. Here in America, it’s left against right, flesh against spirit, neighbor against neighbor.

Truth struggles to find a home. Even the church is slumbering — or worse, collaborating.

Our society tells us that everything must be reset: tradition, marriage, gender, faith, even love. The only sin left is believing in absolute truth. Screens replace Scripture. Entertainment replaces education. Pleasure replaces purpose. Our children are confused, medicated, addicted, fatherless, suicidal. Universities mock virtue. Congress is indifferent. Media programs rather than informs. Schools recondition rather than educate.

Is this worth saving? If not, we should stop fighting and throw up our hands. But if it is, then we must act — and we must act now.

The West: An idea worth saving

What is the West? It’s not a location, race, flag, or a particular constitution. The West is an idea — an idea that man is made in the image of God, that liberty comes from responsibility, not government; that truth exists; that evil exists; and that courage is required every day. The West teaches that education, reason, and revelation walk hand in hand. Beauty matters. Kindness matters. Empathy matters. Sacrifice is holy. Justice is blind. Mercy is near.

We have squandered this inheritance. We forgot who we were — and our enemies are eager to write our ending.

If not now, when? If not us, who? If this is worth saving, we must know why. Western civilization is worth dying for, worth living for, worth defending. It was built on the blood of martyrs, prophets, poets, pilgrims, moms, dads, and soldiers. They did not die for markets, pronouns, surveillance, or currency. They died for something higher, something bigger.

MATTHIEU RONDEL/AFP via Getty Images | Getty Images

Yet hope remains. Resurrection is real — not only in the tomb outside Jerusalem, but in the bones of any individual or group that returns to truth, honor, and God. It is never too late to return to family, community, accountability, and responsibility.

Pick up your torch

We were chosen for this time. We were made for a moment like this. The events unfolding in Europe and South Korea, the unrest and moral collapse, will all come down to us. Somewhere inside, we know we were called to carry this fire.

We are not called to win. We are called to stand. To hold the torch. To ask ourselves, every day: Is it worth standing? Is it worth saving?

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Pick up your torch. If you choose to carry it, buckle up. The work is only beginning.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Stop coasting: How self-education can save America’s future

Joe Raedle / Staff | Getty Images

Coasting through life is no longer an option. Charlie Kirk’s pursuit of knowledge challenges all of us to learn, act, and grow every day.

Last year, my wife and I made a commitment: to stop coasting, to learn something new every day, and to grow — not just spiritually, but intellectually. Charlie Kirk’s tragic death crystallized that resolve. It forced a hard look in the mirror, revealing how much I had coasted in both my spiritual and educational life. Coasting implies going downhill. You can’t coast uphill.

Last night, my wife and I re-engaged. We enrolled in Hillsdale College’s free online courses, inspired by the fact that Charlie had done the same. He had quietly completed around 30 courses before I even knew, mastering the classics, civics, and the foundations of liberty. Watching his relentless pursuit of knowledge reminded me that growth never stops, no matter your age.

The path forward must be reclaiming education, agency, and the power to shape our minds and futures.

This lesson is particularly urgent for two groups: young adults stepping into the world and those who may have settled into complacency. Learning is life. Stop learning, and you start dying. To young adults, especially, the college promise has become a trap. Twelve years of K-12 education now leave graduates unprepared for life. Only 35% of seniors are proficient in reading, and just 22% in math. They are asked to bet $100,000 or more for four years of college that will often leave them underemployed and deeply indebted.

Degrees in many “new” fields now carry negative returns. Parents who have already sacrificed for public education find themselves on the hook again, paying for a system that often fails to deliver.

This is one of the reasons why Charlie often described college as a “scam.” Debt accumulates, wages are not what students were promised, doors remain closed, and many are tempted to throw more time and money after a system that won’t yield results. Graduate school, in many cases, compounds the problem. The education system has become a factory of despair, teaching cynicism rather than knowledge and virtue.

Reclaiming educational agency

Yet the solution is not radical revolt against education — it is empowerment to reclaim agency over one’s education. Independent learning, self-guided study, and disciplined curiosity are the modern “Napster moment.” Just as Napster broke the old record industry by digitizing music, the internet has placed knowledge directly in the hands of the individual. Artists like Taylor Swift now thrive outside traditional gatekeepers. Likewise, students and lifelong learners can reclaim intellectual freedom outside of the ivory towers.

Each individual possesses the ability to think, create, and act. This is the power God grants to every human being. Knowledge, faith, and personal responsibility are inseparable. Learning is not a commodity to buy with tuition; it is a birthright to claim with effort.

David Butow / Contributor | Getty Images

Charlie Kirk’s life reminds us that self-education is an act of defiance and empowerment. In his pursuit of knowledge, in his engagement with civics and philosophy, he exemplified the principle that liberty depends on informed, capable citizens. We honor him best by taking up that mantle — by learning relentlessly, thinking critically, and refusing to surrender our minds to a system that profits from ignorance.

The path forward must be reclaiming education, agency, and the power to shape our minds and futures. Every day, seek to grow, create, and act. Charlie showed the way. It is now our responsibility to follow.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck joins TPUSA tour to honor Charlie Kirk

Joe Raedle / Staff | Getty Images

If they thought the murder of Charlie Kirk would scare us into silence, they were wrong!

If anything, Turning Point will hit the road louder than ever. On Monday, September 22, less than two weeks after the assassination, Charlie's friends united under the Turning Point USA banner to carry his torch and honor his legacy by doing what he did best: bringing honest and truthful debate to Universities across the nation.

Naturally, Glenn has rallied to the cause and has accepted an invitation to join the TPUSA tour at the University of North Dakota on October 9th.

Want to join Glenn at the University of North Dakota to honor Charlie Kirk and keep his mission alive? Click HERE to sign up or find more information.