Ted Nugent Says Parkland Survivors Are ‘Liars’ And ‘Have No Soul’
Musician and National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent personally attacked survivors of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting who organized last month’s March for Our Lives to push for stricter gun laws.
Nugent slammed the teens during a Friday interview on the nationally syndicated conservative radio program “The Joe Pags Show,” calling the teens “liars,” “soulless” and “poor, mushy-brained children.”
“All you have to do now is not only feel sorry for the liars, but you have to go against them and pray to God that the lies can be crushed and the liars can be silenced so that real measures can be put into place to actually save children’s lives,” Nugent said about the Marjory Stoneman Douglas students, just six weeks after a gunman shot and killed 17 people at their South Florida high school.
“The lies from the left, the lies from these poor, mushy-brained children who have been fed lies and parrot the lies, they are actually committing spiritual suicide because everything they recommend will cause more death and mayhem, guaranteed,” Nugent said.
Later in the segment, host Joe Pagliarulo showed Nugent clips of two of the most vocal student activists, David Hogg and Emma González, railing against the NRA. That spurred Nugent to say:
“The dumbing down of America is manifested in the culture deprivation of our academia that have taught these kids the lies, media that have prodded and encouraged and provided these kids lies. I really feel sorry for them because it’s not only ignorant and dangerously stupid, but it’s soulless.”
He added:
“To attack the good, law-abiding families of America when well-known, predictable murderers commit these horrors is deep in the category of soulless.”
In response to the “Cat Scratch Fever” rocker’s comments, several Stoneman Douglas students spoke out online, including Cameron Kasky.
If only he saw all the tears.
If only he had to look into the eyes I’ve looked into.
If only he saw what this did to all of us...
And here the NRA is, receiving more fear-based donations than ever.
Talk about ‘no soul.’ This guy better apologize. Seriously. https://t.co/NHL4yr5r4M— Cameron Kasky (@cameron_kasky) March 31, 2018
Another of the school’s students, Kyra Parrow, called Nugent a bully.
it’s funny how the NRA argues that guns aren’t the issue, it’s bullying that is. Yet literally a NRA board member is being a 5 year old acting like a bully to me and all of the students at douglas. https://t.co/9Upcqdr8e4
— Kyra Parrow (@longlivekcx) March 31, 2018
The NRA launched a heated offensive soon after the Feb. 14 massacre. It has warned its members against the “freedom-hating left,” and claimed that the students’ campaign for reforming gun laws violates Americans’ “fundamental rights.”
The leaders among the students also have been the target of bogus conspiracy theories, such as Hogg being a paid actor and that González tore the U.S. Constitution in two.
Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
