In an LGBT—I mean GBTV interview with Glenn Beck, Ted Nugent tells the world that he could have taken out spree killer James Holmes in the darkened theater that horrific morning. ‘Cause he’d practiced for just such an event. “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 . . .

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.

To which Glenn—a man who told TTAG he supports gun control—replies:

“So do I.  So do I.”

Chutzpah. Braggadocio. In any case, be careful what you wish for. [NB: Not from me, obviously.]

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88 COMMENTS

      • Clearly, and I am of the same mind. I was not poking fun at Young Ted’s message, only his method of delivery.

    • Ah yes, good ole “Uncle Ted”, the motor city madman of yester year!

      I loved his rock in the 80’s and he is still rockin on in the new century!

      How many other multi-million dollar celebrities will pony up their own money to take inner city kids hog hunting while riding on a helicopter, teach them how to butcher & clean what they kill, and then donate it to a local food pantry all in the same day and then do it over & over again, year after year?

      Do yourself a favor and at least visit his website before you go throwing stones at this guy because he is one person that is ready to die to protect his freedoms as well as yours!

      • @Spy..
        I don’t hate Mr. Nugent. He is entitled to his opinion as is everyone. Even Mikeb302000.
        Yeah he had an NRAGasim and maybe said some things that some people might find offensive.
        I guess if anything I felt it could have been articulated better, but that is the PC side of me. He was passionate, and spoke his mind. Sometimes having a large audience as Mr. Nugent does you need to self censor yourself. Yes I know 1st amendment and all that. but the point is you don’t want to alienate the anti gun crowd.
        You need to be constructive and educate them. Much like RF does with disseminating the Brady campaigns use of statistics.

        Q to Dan.. When can we get RF on CNN or something as an alternate point of view on this stuff??? I mean seriously, most of us here are not nuts. We are sane, loving, hard working. His deconstruction of claims is simply awesome, and well balanced, doesn’t call people names, or call them idiots although inferred lol. Heck I want to see RF go head ot head with Obama and Emanuel on this stuff that would be a debate I would watch!

        • Yes Sanch, you are correct in all you say but remember uncle ted’s background.

          He beat the drug addiction, gave up the self centered – self destructing ego tripping hollwierd lifestyle, turned his life around, and now spends ALOT of his time doing charity work for the under privileged and donates his TIME and money to help people.

          Again, the “motor city madman” has always been a hyper kind of person and expecting him to be all PC just so he won’t offend the anti-gun nuts is being unrealistic in the extreme.

          Just read some of his recent (or past) songs and you will find out very quickly he does not care who does not like him or his opinions, he is gonna keep talking and fighting the good fight until the Obumbles gubbermint puts him on the kill-list.

        • I actually dislike him, because of the way he insults people for disagreeing with him. I also dislike the idea that violence is a rational solution to almost every problem.

          I am glad he does charity work, but that does not fix him up as good as new in my opinion. I know a lot of people who do charity work, and they don’t promote it on their websites.

  2. If you guys had any consistency, you would meet a claim like “we never missed a watermelon” the same way you met my recent observations of the American gun carriers. But you won’t. When one of your own deserves ridicule, you support him, when one of the opposition makes a reasonable conclusion from observation, you ridicule.

    This is the very definition of bias.

    • I think Nugent is a dangerously un-hinged whack job, and if I were in that theatre I still would prefer to have been armed.

      I’m not saying I could have automatically made the watermelon shot. I don’t know and neither does anyone else, but a possibility is better than nothing.

      • I agree, I wish TN had been there too. Putting aside the fact that he is more likely to be a suspect than a hero, he is certainly not a coward. He may actually have been able to put a stop to things. He is violent and deranged, but by all accounts, he is a good shot.

        On the other hand, he might also have been confused by the smoke and the darkness and the fact that the target was not attached to fresh produce, and the human outlines were moving rather than stationary.

        He might have just as easily killed several innocent bystanders. Is that a chance we want to take?

        Like many people, I would feel safer if I was armed. But I am not sure I would actually be safer, or just feel that way.

    • “When one of your own deserves ridicule, you support him, when one of the opposition makes a reasonable conclusion from observation, you ridicule.”

      Hmmm. I dunno, but that there sounds like a boat load ‘o bias to me, Mikey…. jes’ sayin’….

    • No. We gun owners and 2A supporters are not a monolithic herd of sheeple following the orders of the NRA. I think anyone that publicly claims to have been able to stop the rampage before it began is delusional. I have never liked dear old Ted’s approach to his media persona. Not now, and not before. As for Glenn Beck. My opinion of him is so low that I can not discuss him without waxing into vulgar profanity.

      • What exactly has GB done or said that provokes your ire? I would submit those who don’t like certain media folks have never really listened to them beyond and occasional soundbite here and there.

        You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but you really should try to make it an informed opinion.

        • I’ve listened to him repeatedly, and I carry the same respect for him as I do Alex Jones, Rush, and Michael Savage. They are all equally misguided, self-aggrandizing, self promoting talking heads. They engage in wild conspiracy theories with little proof and do nothing but yell and scream to back up their assertions. The only purpose they serve is to rile up their base and send voters off on tangents.

          • 1 agree with you 100 percent! I like that line Guns don’t kill people, people kill people, that line is getting old! Guns make it to easy!

        • “what exactly ha GB done to provoke your ire?”

          LIBS! LIBS! LIBS! LIBS! LIBS! BUY GOLD!!

          That.

          • he is nothing but a big asshole,he churns out stuff like he gods gift, when he is the butt of most jokes.

        • I have listened to him. I find that he lacks the fundamental analytical skills to produce any form of coherent social or political commentary.

          All of the TV talking heads, be they on the left or right, are purely entertainers – and bad ones at that.

          The right has not had a competent TV commentator since William F. Buckley, with the possible exception of David Brooks.

    • Mike you posted the second post condeming “us” for being biased. The only post before your thread was a joke. How can we be biased if we haven’t even had a chance to read/reaspond?
      There is nothing reasonable about your conclusion, but I leave that for the original topic.

    • Not true Mikey. I think Nugent is a nut, and he’d do more for the gun rights crowd by shutting up and maybe donating a little cash, than he EVER will by opening that crazy mouth of his. I’m also definitely not a Beck fan.

      It’s also very possible for an experienced shooter to never miss a watermelon sized target at ranges of 20 feet up to 20 yards. He may have been exaggerating, but those aren’t exactly impossible shots for a decent shot.

    • Hello Mikebnumbers. Please stop trolling. We know you don’t like guns and that’s fine. We’re not trying to change you. Please stop trying to change us.

    • I think the only thing I like better than mikey’s insane “arguments” is when he puts forth an accusation that could be turned on him and his ilk with laughable simplicity. We could contact Webster and have this be put as the definition of hypocrisy.

  3. yeah, i’m going to keep banging this drum. i want the option to defend myself. whether i can pull it off under those exact conditions isn’t the point. i don’t want some pol telling me that i have no chance, don’t even try.

    • The point of the post was that Nugent and Beck “WISHED THEY WERE THERE IN THE THEATER”, not that they support carrying a concealed weapon in general.

        • Yeah, I kinda wished they were in the theater too…they could be stand up bullet magnets so everyone else could flee. Reasonable trade-off.

        • Nah, Mark – it would’ve been better if Pelosi and Feinstein were there to sternly point out that “The sign on the theater door clearly says no guns allow, so you have to leave”. I’m sure that would have ended things instantly.

  4. Poor form. If Ted had said “I wish I could have stopped him.”, well that would be a perfectly reasonable, and very human thing to say. I had exactly that thought when I heard what had happened. But anyone who wishes they were in that theater, armed or not, is a damned fool.

    • But anyone who wishes they were in that theater, armed or not, is a damned fool.

      Wanting to have made a difference in preventing or reducing the severity of a mass murder is the mindset of a fool, you say?

      Funny, I’d consider it the mindset of a responsible member of society. Screw the accolades– if I had a shot at preventing the murder of a six year old, you can bloody well rest assured I’d take it.

      • I like how you only quoted one of my three sentences.

        A man has to do what he has to do.
        But yeah. If you WANT to be in a gunfight, you are a fool.

        • I kind of agree with Lion.
          I don’t wish for conflict, I don’t want it, but knowing as many of us have a skill set here, having the chance to have saved someone I think is what he meant.
          I in no way would have wished I was there. That would have meant my kids would have been there too.
          I do however feel that had I been there and armed I think I could have made a difference. I think any of us could have.
          We train, we study, and we prepare. We hope the day never comes, but if it does we should know we are as ready as ever.
          To that end I think the biggest issue, from a gun advocacy stand point is choice. Sure even as a CCW holder we might have not been carrying. But by their corporate policy we didn’t have a choice. If there had been a few folks carrying in that theater I am pretty sure the damage would have been reduced.

    • you are dealing with a unreasonable person(Nugent), him and beck should hold hands, they”re both psychos!

  6. this must have been covered elsewhere, but how difficult would it have been to take out the shooter given he had body armor?

    • Ever been hit in the chest with a baseball bat? Getting shot while wearing a vest feels kinda like that.

      • A Blackhawk Urban Assault Vest is NOT body armor. How many times are we going to see this misconception repeated?

        • or, if he was wearing body armor, since he walked past so many people, someone could have just walked up behind him and shot him in the head, under his helmet.

        • Micheal B is correct. He was wearing a vest, like as in nylon and pockets. No Kevlar.

    • I am pretty sure the criminal was not wearing bullet-resistant anything. But even if he had a ballistic vest, the answer is “Mozambique drills” … which are two quick shots to an attacker’s center of mass and then a single, somewhat slower and more carefully aimed shot to the attackers head if they continue to threaten you after the first two shots to their center of mass.

      That approach simply plays the numbers. It is easier and faster to put shots on an attacker’s relatively large “center of mass” area than the relatively smaller target area of the head so you shoot at the attacker’s “center of mass” first. That said a target could be wearing a ballistic vest which is able to stop most handgun bullets and often not visible. So if you believe you put rounds into the attackers center of mass and they continue to be a threat, you assume that they are wearing a ballistic vest and proceed to their head, which does not have ballistic anything.

    • He didn’t have body armor. Even if he did, since he wasn’t looking for a fight, a few shot to the chest would’ve stopped him. Kevlar just ensures that the bullet doesn’t penetrate – you still get that full force shattering your ribs.

      • you still get Blunt force trauma, it feels like getting hit with a baseball bat in the chest!

  7. How did he get the watermelons to throw tear gas canisters at him and open fire with an AR-15 while the paper silhouettes ran in a panicked, screaming blur in every possible direction? I want his range set-up…

    • Perfect reply. I wonder if Ted was ever in real combat where the bullets were coming his way.

      And for those who say if the two in center mass don’t do the trick, go for a head shot. How do you know you even hit center mass with the first two?

  8. A non moving watermelon that isn’t shooting at you, where you have the initiative, surrounded by silhouettes that don’t run around screaming. perfectly comparable! In related news, I could totally fly a combat mission in an F-22, I played a lot of videogames.

  10. I don’t know about y’all, but if I ever blunder into a theater full of watermelons, I’m not sticking around.

  13. ermey. ermey’s the answer to this peoblem. that man has killed more watermelons with more types of weapons than anybody on the planet. next time those watermelons take over a theater let’s call in ermey. for all other opponents i’d still like to be able to legally carry.

    • JWM, unlike the two jackalopes being discussed,GySgt.R.Lee Ermey ,USMC retired has been tested in battle and not found wanting.While off topic,I have every confidence he would have been the right man in a very bad place. Be Safe.

      • You right, the right wing has no moral standard they are nothing but BS artists like left wing fanatics which have to much moral standard, go new Whig Party.

  14. With a gun or without a gun, I’m glad I wasn’t there. If I had been and survived unhurt, I’d still wish I hadn’t.

    • the first honest, logical “if I were there” response I’ve seen….+100, and I agree

  15. Most people that say “I wish I’d been there” about a dangerous situation would not in reality want to be there.

  16. There’s a difference between “I wish I could have done something” and “I wish I as there.” I personally know I’m nowhere near good enough a shot to have been effective amidst gas, panic, and surprise, so my presence would have been negligible.

    I was at a range in Ohio when someone shot himself in a pistol booth. I don’t know if it was an accident or attempted suicide, but it was horrible, and the incident threw me off for days and still lingers with me when I go to public ranges. Though I wish there was something I could have done to intervene before it happened (impossible unless I was clairvoyant), I sure as hell wouldn’t wish to be there when it happened.

    Same thing here. Naturally, I wish there was some way I could have helped, but I sure don’t wish I was there. Anyone who does needs a reality check.

    • 2nd best response…I can relate. The very first time I ever heard a gunshot, I was six years old, and my dad, a retired police officer now, was taking his service revolver out of his holster and blew a hole in the nightstand. there is nothing louder and more frightening the gunfire INDOORS. I still jump at the thought of it.

  17. I keep hearing he had body armor.. That would have rendered my normal load of federal JHP ineffective right? Also, I can’t think of a worse place to shoot than a crowded, dark theater with teargas blurring my vision..
    I suspect that if I’d been there, I’d have been in total shock for the first 20 seconds, then probably missed the first three or four shots at him because my hands were shaking from adrenaline… Maybe after the first few shots I’d have hit him.. maybe he’d have shot me first. Who knows what they’d do until they actually have something this crazy happen to them. I wonder if I’d have ended up shooting someone else accidentally.. that keeps me up wondering about all this.. I’m good on the range, but… don’t know about this situation.
    Would my bullets have incapacitated him through rib breakage at least?
    Anyone here know anything about shooting an armored perp?

  18. Yeah, Ted, but what if the watermelons had been spitting seeds? What’s that you say, they were seedless? Oh, different story…

    “Ted Nugent, Glenn Beck: We Wish We Had Been There.” Is it wrong for me to say I wish they had been there, too? I guess so.  (No one should wish they had been there nor wish the same fate on others. In my opinion, it seems to cheapen the horrific event, especially since we may never know how many may have died trying to fight the shooter.)

  19. If uncle Ted (who I believe is crazy) was there I bet he WOULD have improved the situation. So yeah, I wish he was there too. His flavor crazy may be a good kind for taking out armed madmen exhibiting a totally different flavor.

    If Beck was there, well let’s just say I agree that I wish he was there.

  20. I don think “In an lgbt -i mean gbtv interview” is a good thing to put. That issue has little to do with ours and we (gun owners/enthusiasts) don’t want to be characterized as extremely anti-gay or poke fun at another group under the gun, so to speak as we are in a similar position too. i’m just saying I don’t think it helps imho

  22. If I had full body Kevlar, two shotguns, five AR’s, and 10 glocks, I still wouldn’t have wished I was there. If that were the case, I would have become a cop in order to be there and protect people. I chose not to be cop so that bullets would never fly my way, but if for some reason they ever do, I will be sending bullets back too. I just don’t want to purposefully put myself in those situations.

  23. I love dear ole Uncle Ted, but even I have to call BS. Even if he didn’t miss a single watermelon, he could never have dealt with the chaos in that theater.

  24. Can we get Charleton Heston back to replace this guy on the NRA board?

    BTW, is Glenn Beck saying that he wishes that he (Beck) were at the theater? Or is he saying that he wishes that Nugent had been at the theater?

  25. Uncle Ted is one of my favorites, especially when he goes on a rant. But in this case I disagree with his bravado.

    Watermelons aren’t shooting back, in the dark, with smoke in the air, and hundreds of people running around screaming, in an overcrowded room, when you aren’t expecting it. And that’s the key… no one in that theater was expecting something like that to happen, armed or not.

    Have I made my point? For those of us who have been in gun battles (military style), you can observe this event and “what if” it to death without being able to accurately predict the outcome.

    My prediction would be that in most cases, trained or not, you would only add to the body count that the scumbag is trying to create. There’s a slim chance that during all that chaos you would slow him down or stop him without adding to the problem.

    And yes, I carry all the time.

    • don’t get me wrong i’m a medically retired poline officer from nyc who stroked in 1999. There has to be a better system so nut jobs can’t carry any guns of any type! when I hear Glen Beck and Ted Nugent wish they were there, they’re so full of shit, when was the last time GB and TN at a movie theater!

  26. Even with Simunitions FoF training, which I admit can get one pretty amped up if one is in the right frame of mind, it still doesn’t replicate real live fire in your direction. Having never been in a gunfight or in military combat, but having been shot at twice, robbed at gunpoint once and held up at knife-point once, along with a number of other weaponless unpleasant and violent incidents over the years, I can well attest that remaining linear and focused can be a bit of a chore. Further, having worked the pits at many a high power match, especially during the opening volleys of the rapid fire segments, and having a fairly good imagination, it’s not too hard to figure how much it would really suck to have all of those rounds coming your way without having the luxury of a massive berm in front of you that extends at least eight feet over your head.

    Perhaps the Motor City Madman can get back to us with his opinions after he’s experienced being blissfully in condition white, nibbling on popcorn and a jumbo box of Raisinettes, when the watermelons open up on him with live rounds. But I’m sure he’s trained for that. He can be such a dolt…ugh! Spouting off like that reminds me of the Gilderoy Lockhart character in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

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