Ted Nugent’s Facebook post on guns and Jews draws charges of anti-Semitism

(RNS) The rocker's post insulted Jews and blasted them for supporting gun control.

Ted Nugent responds to a question during an interview before a concert at the House of Blues at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 11, 2007. Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Steve Marcus

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(RNS) Rocker and National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent has sparked an Internet firestorm with a Facebook post denigrating Jews. The post shows a graphic that superimposes the Israeli flag on pictures of 12 Jewish American politicians and others who support gun control laws, and asks: “So who is really behind gun control?”

“Know these punks. They hate freedom, they hate good over evil, they would deny us the basic human right to self defense & to KEEP & BEAR ARMS while many of them have tax paid hired ARMED security! Know them well,” Nugent wrote in his post. “Tell every1 you know how evil they are. Let us raise maximum hell to shut them down!”


On his picture, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is described as “Jew York City mayor Mikey Bloomberg.”

Civil rights groups are denouncing the post. Though Nugent apparently shared but did not himself create the graphic — which has appeared on anti-Semitic websites — the writing above it is attributed to him.

Nugent’s suggestion that Jews are behind gun control “is nothing short of conspiratorial anti-Semitism,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement. “Regardless of one’s views on gun control, this kind of scapegoating of an entire religious group is completely unacceptable and completely divorced from reality.”

An NRA spokeswoman told The Washington Post on Wednesday (Feb. 10) that “individual board members do not speak for the NRA.”

(Lauren Markoe is a national reporter for Religion News Service)

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