Ted Nugent recently opened up on the call by a number of lawmakers in Texas and beyond for the minimum age to purchase assault rifles to be raised to 21 from 18. Under federal law, Americans buying handguns from licensed dealers must be at least 21, which would have precluded the gunman responsible for last week’s massacre in Uvalde, Texas from buying that type of weapon days after his 18th birthday. (The Uvalde gunman used an AR-15-style rifle, a popular range of semiautomatic weapons that was purchased from a sporting goods store, to carry out the attack.) That trumps Texas law, which only requires buyers of any type of firearm to be 18 or older.
Nugent, who recently resigned from the board of the National Rifle Association (NRA) after 26 years, addressed the call on various states to raise the age limit for long gun purchases to 21 during his YouTube livestream on Sunday (May 29).
He said in part: “So a buddy of mine who I respect said, ‘Maybe we should make it you’ve gotta be 21 to buy an assault weapon.’ I said, ‘Stop. They’re not assault weapons.’ No one is using an assault weapon in any crime.
“AR-15s are not assault rifles. Assault isn’t hardware. Assault is an action. An assault is what humans do, not what hardware does. And when they call them assault weapons — AK-47s, AK-47s. Let’s talk about that for a moment, shall we? No AK-47 has ever been used in a crime in the United States Of America. ‘Well, that’s ridiculous. They’re everywhere.’ No, they’re not. An AK-47 is a Kalashnikov machine gun. ‘What about the Hollywood bank robbery?’ That was an SKS that was illegally altered to fire full auto. The mere possession of it, the possession of the firing pin, the possession of the trigger was a felony.
“Write the law that would stop murder — not by guns,” he added. “By SUVs in Waukesha, by tractor trailers in Miami, by Cadillacs in L.A. More people are killed every year by hammers, everybody.”
Nugent also attacked Don McLean and Lee Greenwood for canceling NRA convention appearances in a video seen below.
Ted Nugent went on Alex Jones to rant about fellow musicians Don McClean and Lee Greenwood backing out of playing the NRA convention: “What is wrong with you! .. Lee Greenwood and Don McLean have abandoned a civil rights organization that stands up for the sanctity of life!” pic.twitter.com/Jn5vG6pFqw
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) May 28, 2022
