CNN Exchange: Commentary Nugent: Gun-free zones are recipe for disaster POSTED: 9:51 p.m. EDT, April 20, 2007 By Ted Nugent Special to CNN Editor's note: Rock guitarist Ted Nugent has sold more than 30 million albums. He's also a gun rights activist and serves on the board of directors of the National Rifle Association. His program, "Ted Nugent Spirit of the Wild," can be seen on the Outdoor Channel. Read an opposing take on gun control from journalist Tom Plate: Let's lay down our right to bear arms WACO, Texas (CNN) -- Zero tolerance, huh? Gun-free zones, huh? Try this on for size: Columbine gun-free zone, New York City pizza shop gun-free zone, Luby's Cafeteria gun-free zone, Amish school in Pennsylvania gun-free zone and now Virginia Tech gun-free zone. Anybody see what the evil Brady Campaign and other anti-gun cults have created? I personally have zero tolerance for evil and denial. And America had best wake up real fast that the brain-dead celebration of unarmed helplessness will get you killed every time, and I've about had enough of it. Nearly a decade ago, a Springfield, Oregon, high schooler, a hunter familiar with firearms, was able to bring an unfolding rampage to an abrupt end when he identified a gunman attempting to reload his .22-caliber rifle, made the tactical decision to make a move and tackled the shooter. A few years back, an assistant principal at Pearl High School in Mississippi, which was a gun-free zone, retrieved his legally owned Colt .45 from his car and stopped a Columbine wannabe from continuing his massacre at another school after he had killed two and wounded more at Pearl. At an eighth-grade school dance in Pennsylvania, a boy fatally shot a teacher and wounded two students before the owner of the dance hall brought the killing to a halt with his own gun. More recently, just a few miles up the road from Virginia Tech, two law school students ran to fetch their legally owned firearm to stop a madman from slaughtering anybody and everybody he pleased. These brave, average, armed citizens neutralized him pronto. My hero, Dr. Suzanne Gratia Hupp, was not allowed by Texas law to carry her handgun into Luby's Cafeteria that fateful day in 1991, when due to bureaucrat-forced unarmed helplessness she could do nothing to stop satanic George Hennard from killing 23 people and wounding more than 20 others before he shot himself. Hupp was unarmed for no other reason than denial-ridden "feel good" politics. She has since led the charge for concealed weapon upgrade in Texas, where we can now stop evil. Yet, there are still the mindless puppets of the Brady Campaign and other anti-gun organizations insisting on continuing the gun-free zone insanity by which innocents are forced into unarmed helplessness. Shame on them. Shame on America. Shame on the anti-gunners all. No one was foolish enough to debate Ryder truck regulations or ammonia nitrate restrictions or a "cult of agriculture fertilizer" following the unabashed evil of Timothy McVeigh's heinous crime against America on that fateful day in Oklahoma City. No one faulted kitchen utensils or other hardware of choice after Jeffrey Dahmer was caught drugging, mutilating, raping, murdering and cannibalizing his victims. Nobody wanted "steak knife control" as they autopsied the dead nurses in Chicago, Illinois, as Richard Speck went on trial for mass murder. Evil is as evil does, and laws disarming guaranteed victims make evil people very, very happy. Shame on us. Already spineless gun control advocates are squawking like chickens with their tiny-brained heads chopped off, making political hay over this most recent, devastating Virginia Tech massacre, when in fact it is their own forced gun-free zone policy that enabled the unchallenged methodical murder of 32 people. Thirty-two people dead on a U.S. college campus pursuing their American Dream, mowed-down over an extended period of time by a lone, non-American gunman in possession of a firearm on campus in defiance of a zero-tolerance gun ban. Feel better yet? Didn't think so. Who doesn't get this? Who has the audacity to demand unarmed helplessness? Who likes dead good guys? I'll tell you who. People who tramp on the Second Amendment, that's who. People who refuse to accept the self-evident truth that free people have the God-given right to keep and bear arms, to defend themselves and their loved ones. People who are so desperate in their drive to control others, so mindless in their denial that they pretend access to gas causes arson, Ryder trucks and fertilizer cause terrorism, water causes drowning, forks and spoons cause obesity, dialing 911 will somehow save your life, and that their greedy clamoring to "feel good" is more important than admitting that armed citizens are much better equipped to stop evil than unarmed, helpless ones. Pray for the families of victims everywhere, America. Study the methodology of evil. It has a profile, a system, a preferred environment where victims cannot fight back. Embrace the facts, demand upgrade and be certain that your children's school has a better plan than Virginia Tech or Columbine. Eliminate the insanity of gun-free zones, which will never, ever be gun-free zones. They will only be good guy gun-free zones, and that is a recipe for disaster written in blood on the altar of denial. I, for one, refuse to genuflect there. What is your take on this commentary? E-mail us The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the writer. This is part of an occasional series of commentaries on CNN.com that offers a broad range of perspectives, thoughts and points of view. Read an opposing point of view from journalist Tom Plate: Let's lay down our right to bear arms Your responses CNN.com asked readers for their thoughts on this commentary. Below you will find a small selection of these e-mails, some of which have been edited for length and spelling: Travis Carollo, Sullivan, Missouri I agree 100 percent. The only thing anti-guns laws will prevent is normal law-abiding citizens from owning them. Criminals will always find a way to obtain a gun. They are criminals. They will never follow the law. Way to go Nuge! Doug, Houston, Texas Frankly I got sick in my stomach reading Mr. Nugent's article. According to Mr. Nugent, the solution is very simple: All citizens should be armed and the world would be a much safer place. Let's take a moment to think about the implication of this. The criminals are not dumb. If we average law-abiding citizens were allowed to freely purchase weapons, the criminals would do everything they could to ensure they have the upper hands on their firepower. Of course, we would immediately do the same to regain our upper hands. What then would you think the criminals would do in return? Kathy Culley, Virginia Beach, Virginia Ted has hit the nail on the head. Making the right to bear arms illegal is only illegal for the "good" guys. The "bad" guys will always have access through their illegal ways. Just thinking that someone may be carrying a gun might deter would-be killers out of their heinous crime. Way to go Ted for speaking out for our American rights! Nita Olson, Florence, Mississippi I believe he is right! I'm not fond of guns, but I believe we should have the right to bear arms and protect our loved ones. I, for one, would not hesitate to shoot someone trying to enter my house, car, etc. Reason being you ask? If the "suspect" is entering my home, armed with a gun, then I feel no remorse about shooting someone who is coming into my "zone" with the intent of hurting/killing me or family and taking things that I have worked hard for and will not give it up "because it can be replaced." Joe Russo, Staten Island, New York Ted Nugent really has a twisted way of looking at the violence that seems to regularly plague us. As a hunter and gun owner, I do believe in our right to bear arms. However, that right should not include hand guns and assualt weapons. Josh Munford, Lincoln, Nebraska Simply stated, Ted Nugent is right. The fact of the matter is that these anti-gun activists have created more problems. Evil will always find a way and giving them more opportunity by creating "anti" laws in all reality protects them. It's common sense to a criminal: "Law-abiding citizens won't be prepared here or here or here, so I'll be able to create the most destruction, panic and chaos there." What are you thinking by creating anti-gun laws, and gun free zones? Linda, Plymouth, Michigan To back up Ted's points, when have we ever heard of a gunman killing 32 people in a police station? How about at an Army Base in Michigan? Nope. How about at the local shooting range? Tons of guns there, you'd think there'd be mass killing there every other weekend with all the guns...oh wait...at all those places the victims would be armed and would shoot back. An armed gunman wouldn't get out more than one shot, if that, before being stopped. John Thatamanil, Nashville, Tennessee "A God-given right to bear guns?" Dear Mr. Nugent, which God, pray tell, are you speaking about? Surely not Jesus, you know, the one who said, "He who lives by the sword dies by the sword." Frankly, I find Mr. Nugent whatever God he claims to worship terribly frightening. Stick to rock, Mr. Nugent, you are terrifically good at that!
The most evil comes from.... Ehe I get tired of saying and reading the same thing. The politics around gun control is stupid. I for one and happy, I live in Missouri I have my rights to carry, I have my rights to carry concealed. I will shoot any POS that tries to inflict harm on me, my family or anyone around me in which I can stop the madness. I dont call harm on anyone, but how do you fix this? Easy those political injustice people need harm placed upon themselves. A gunman go WILD and hurt one of there family members...I bet they change there mind in a heart beat. All they have to do is open up there mind and see how gun control affects no one but the "good" people. I mean hell, when I buy my gun there is a ton of crap I have to do to get it.
wang dang sweet poontang, didn't he used to have an album with him playing the guitar that was a double barrell shotgun lol. Crazy bastard. I don't know what to think of this. The thought of every shmuck walking around with a gun is pretty scary, that's not the way it is here, if you get caught with a gun your going to jail. On the other hand all the law biding citizens are walking around defenseless and there is a few ****ups that take the chance and have free reign untill they get caught. Which they always do but after they've taken out a few people. No easy solution that i can see, too much going on in this world based around weapons and war.
Live in the show me state do ya? Same here, down in the southwest corner about 30 miles southeast of Joplin
I can appreciate your point. But I disagree with it also. If every legal and willing citizen would go through and be certified, or liscensed if you will for a concealed carry permiit, There would be less crime, it is a fact. Shoot outs at every fender bender dont happen, Just cause i get mad at the store clerk for not refunding my money does not mean i am gunna shoot them!!!! Law abiding citizens that carry a firearm use them for one reason, to preserve life, and to be honest, most of the time a trigger never has to be pulled to diffuse a tense situation, the mere site of a firearm can do wonders in changing a persons mind, i have personally proven this 2 times in my life. Switzerland is a country that requires a firearm in every mans house....and they have one of the lowest crime rates in the world, some city down south, I forget the name, has a city ordinance, every household is required to have a firearm.........the crime rate is almost non - existant in that town.... Scool shootings would be a far less popular thing too. Any gun free sone is an invitation to disaster.....I carry whenever I go to my childrens school..although I abide by the laws of the state and it has to remain in the vehicle...but it aint too far away..... I could go on about all this, but I am sure you understand my point. Unfortunatly for Canada, it has these mindless idiotic laws......thats one reason i will Never visit that country.
