Ted Nugent is a knob. I don’t care if you find him a musical genius I cant see past his redneck inbred mentality. I despise his face and the sheer thought of him makes bile rise in my throat. So why am I even giving him the space here today?
Good question! Its because he wrote a nice letter to another comic book character, Vice President Joe Biden. Nugent was writing (in crayon perhaps) to give some down home advise on gun control.
We all know about the Connecticut shootings. The town is a quaint little Norman Rockwell painting now forever covered in blood not because of guns but because Americas problem with mental health. We aren't’t addressing our teenagers mental health- sure we medicate them but are we actually guiding out of the dark times they're forced to endure? In wealthy bedroom towns its so much easier to medicate and buy and X Box then to actually actively and aggressively seek help for those at risk.
So it is with heavy heart that I offer up Ted Nugent's letter, originally posted in the Washington Post as an open letter to the Vice President.
The asshole actually makes sense and although I do hope he crawls under a rock and goes silent forever- for just a brief moment I want to say…
I agree with him.
Here it is:
'I encourage you to persuade the president to lead this effort by providing a number of public service announcements. The announcements should include watching out for each other, encouraging parents to be more involved in their children's lives regarding entertainment choices, and knowing various indicators we should watch for in people who are unstable. Clearly, the focus on solving these mass murders must be on the mentally ill.
'In almost every instance of mass killing, there were ample red flags and warning alarms that either were avoided or were not acted upon by mental health professionals, family members, friends and acquaintances. While I deeply respect an individual's privacy and civil liberties, the American people need basic awareness of what indicators to look for regarding potentially violent, psychotic people. Our collective safety begins with being collectively vigilant.
'I don't encourage you to recommend a ban on any weapon, magazine capacity or type of ammunition. That won't accomplish anything other than prevent the 99.9 percent of responsible, law-abiding Americans from enjoying these modern weapons as we do now.
'We should never recommend or develop public policy that restricts the rights of the good guys based upon what evil people do or might do. If that were the case, alcohol still would be banned. As you may know, drunk drivers kill an estimated 12,000 Americans each year and hurt tens of thousands more.'