Editor's Note: Conservative rocker Ted Nugent's brother penned an op-ed on Saturday in support of universal background checks for all gun purchases. Here is Ted's response:
Ted Nugent's Perspective: Freedom of expression is so beautifully American. Making that our very First Amendment is surely all the proof one needs to know our founding fathers were revolutionary visionaries.
In this day and age of terminal apathy and soulless discontent, I adore anyone who is an activist and stands up for what he or she believes. That is exactly how our founders designed this experiment in self government.
My loving brother Jeffery is becoming one of those activists, and I salute the great man. Never one to shy away from controversy, my brother wades into it. We were raised right.
His recent opinion on his support for expanded background checks for firearms purchasers is dead wrong, however.
Passing expanded background checks would do nothing to curtail or suppress thugs or psychos from accessing weapons and committing mass murder, carjacking, the nightly shootouts in Chicago or a gangsta shooting at the Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans.
Paroled thugs or bug-eyed psychotics could not care less about any gun laws. The bold and ugly reality is that they will always gain access to a weapon. I believe at his core, my brother knows this.
So, knowing that evil will always have access to weapons, the point of universal background checks, denying or restricting Americans the right to own standard semi-auto weapons, high capacity magazines or various inademate hardware are all moot, irrelevant points.
In fact, the only people who would comply with universal background checks are law-abiding folks who already comply with more than 20,000 federal, state, and local gun laws.
We have ample laws to restrict nuts and felons from accessing weapons. The problem is those laws are avoided by the nuts and felons, and when we catch them committing this next felony, Eric "gun-running" Holder's DOJ doesn't prosecute them.
Guns purchased from non-Federal Firearms License (FFL) dealers are rarely used in crimes.
The DOJ conducted a study in 1997 and found that fewer than 2 percent of guns purchased at gun shows were used in crimes.
Following up on that study, the DOJ conducted a survey in 2001 and found that fewer than 1 percent of prison inmates bought their guns at a gun show.
An FFL is not required for those individuals who are not gun dealers. These are individuals who periodically sell a gun such as selling a rifle to your neighbor. There is no need or justification for a background check in these instances.
Throughout my travels I’ve literally spoken with many hundreds of beat cops, homicide investigators, undercover cops, police chiefs, sheriffs, and federal agents about crime, and not one — not a single one — has ever said that closing the so-called gun show loophole or universal background checks would reduce crime.
What these brave law enforcement officers have told me over and over again is that America does have a loophole that, if closed, would significantly make America safer.
That loophole is the revolving door of our criminal justice system. The vast majority of violent criminals have arrest records many pages long for violent crimes, yet our criminal justice joke pushes them back out on America’s streets to commit more crimes against innocent law-abiding citizens.
This is universally supported by the NRA and all good guys everywhere.
Universal background checks will not stop bug-eyed psychotics or paroled felons. Good guys with guns will stop them.
There is a huge difference between "doing something" and doing something meaningful.
I'm sticking with the doing something that actually provides beneficial results, not feel good fantasy nonsense. Keep violent criminals and life threatening psychos in their cages.
Problem solved.
Ted Nugent is a musician and award-winning writer and author of The New York Times best-selling “Ted White & Blue: The Nugent Manifesto” and “God, Guns and Rock 'n' Roll,” along with “Kill It and Grill It,” “BloodTrails,” and “BloodTrails II.” He also is a member of the board of directors of the National Rifle Association. Read more reports from Ted Nugent — Click Here Now.
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