Every Hunters Responsibility

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The Nuge Factor - Every Hunters Responsibility

By Ted Nugent


Every Hunter's Responsibility

The Nugent family Suburban pulled up to the customs booth at the Michigan-Canadian border, eager to get to Sarnia, Ontario, for our opening spring concert for 2001. We knew we had to check in with immigration to review my work documents, but before we knew what hit us, we had a squadron of customs agents surrounding our vehicle. But not to worry, for each uniformed man and woman were all smiles as they greeted us with loud, laughing, friendly jubilation, talking excitedly about our shared sacred love of hunting and guns! They all wanted to know where I had been hunting recently, what gun I usually carry, and they commented vociferously on how ridiculous and counterproductive their own Canadian rules are that disallow law enforcement professionals and qualified concealed weapons permit holders from carrying their handguns into Canada. They simply shook their heads sadly in unison at the insult and embarrassment of their putrid C68 fiasco. Some of the agents shared their excitement about their upcoming bear hunts in other provinces since their own home province of Ontario had foolishly banned spring bear hunting. There was rip-roaring common sense and goodwill running wild all around us and it felt like an old home gathering at the Nugent hunting lodge campfire. I was moved. Our border stop was quite smooth to say the least.

Though I am very aware of the horror stories about rude abuse towards Americans at the hands of Canadian border personnel just because of an NRA sticker on the window of a vehicle, more often than not, I experience total support and friendliness when I go through the border to our Northern neighbors. Be careful to not jump to the assumption that my so-called music career celebrity greases the system for me. Sure, I'm recognized, and not as a rock star per se, but clearly based on the dialog that always takes place, as a hunter and gun owner first and foremost. Why is that? It's rather simple. For more than 35 years, my career has allowed me to communicate at unprecedented levels with an amazing cross section of society via my radio, television and print media interviews - more than 750 in the year 2000. It seems that no matter where I go, I am approached by all sorts of people exuberantly voicing their support and appreciation for my pro-gun and pro-hunt activism and for standing up for what we believe in. That's a wonderful feeling unto itself, but much more importantly, a wonderful indicator we must all respond to. And remember, I don't mince words. I am blunt and to the point while still being courteous yet passionate.

The important point here is not that I can access and use major media to get the truth across to millions of people, nor is it at all about me individually because people recognize me as a hunter/gunner. The real power of all this is that someone, anyone, who is associated positively with hunting and guns, is embraced enthusiastically by the public. We are in fact not the bad guys as so desperately depicted by the dishonest media of the land. It is this distinctly positive association that should be the battle cry for hunters and shooters everywhere, for in the spiritual bloodletting of this cultural war for our God-given rights, victory will be determined by one simple reality: PR. Public relations, pure and simple. Will the anti-gunners and anti-hunters be more convincing, or will we? Quite simply, are they better at selling their lies than we are at delivering the truth? I dare say, if we are losing, we deserve to be losing because we are not trying as hard as they are. Now that's sad and embarrassing and absolutely intolerable. I for one will not stand by like some crybaby and let this go unchallenged.

Like the simple truism of hunting, "right place at the right time", our sacred and honorable outdoor and Second Amendment heritage too will be won or lost based on the believability and passion of our message. It will all come down to visibility, place and time. And you know what I have learned? Everyplace is the right place and all the time is the right time. Period. Anyone who doesn't get that is unsophisticated as to how the real world operates.

First and foremost, the hunting/shooting community needs a serious upgrade in basic social education and PR101. Each and every hunter should know the history of wildlife mismanagement and the eventual turnaround brought about by hunters and trappers in the early 1900s. Every true hunter should be able and prepared at all times to share with the people in their lives how Teddy Roosevelt, Aldo Leopold, John Hornady and other hunters spearheaded the fight to end the unrestricted marketing slaughter that was unregulated commercial hunting. How professional trappers alerted the world to the eradication of North American beaver populations. How John Hornady, a true hunter, saved the last buffalo from the indiscriminate guns of the U.S. Cavalry. How America's most famous hunter, President Theodore Roosevelt, demanded regulations and restrictions on all hunting, fishing and trapping, and was the first American to set aside vast wild lands as parks to ensure healthy wildlife habitat and conditions.

Every hunter in America today should be able to rattle off statistics about how there are more wild turkey, whitetail deer, Canadian geese and mountain lions in North America today than in the history of record keeping. They should share with everyone, how, because of hunters' generosity, goodwill and money, we celebrate more deer, turkey, wildfowl, elk, buffalo, cougars, moose, eagles and bears than in over 150 years. Any hunter who gives a darn should make it a point to initiate this discussion with people in every gathering they are a part of. Letters to editors and discussions on talk radio should be our hue and cry across the land, day in and day out. We should use the terms honor, heritage, conservation, balance, renewable resource stewardship, environmental awareness, bio-diversity, health, sustain yield, carrying capacity, natural cycle, natural order, tooth-fang and claw, essential surplus harvest, quality air, soil and water producing habitat, and so many other real world colloquialisms and facts that best convey our successful management of wildlife to the public in a thoughtful, caring passionate fashion. We must all learn to speak with passion and conviction, never letting some dim-wit use cartoon characters to describe living, breathing, flesh and blood creatures that deserve so much more respect. And when we hear someone disrespect animals this way, we should show righteous disdain for such ignorance and callousness. In other words, take control of the subject and neutralize the argument on an intellectual level by doing so.

And the same goes for the gun issue. No more do we allow the lies like "Saturday Night Specials", "assault weapons", "AK47s", "cop killer bullets", "hi-capacity magazines" and the like to go unchallenged and be intellectually tolerated. There is no such thing as a "Saturday night special". Cheap and easily concealed? What's cheap? A gun that an inner city low income family can afford to protect themselves? Easily concealable? Like my four-inch S&W M29 .44 magnum? How about an old double-barreled shotgun sawed off and carried under a coat? It wasn't easily concealable a moment ago! And what is a "cop killer bullet"?

The very first step, and I believe obligation, of every law-abiding gun owner in the Free World is to join the NRA, pure and simple. In every issue of the NRA publications there are found a myriad of pivotally valuable information and data that every gunner should be able to voice at a moments notice. If we fail to know and voice the truth, the lies of our enemies will continue to find their way into policy making at the hands of liars like Sarah Brady and Dianne Feinstein and Charlie Schumer and David Bonior and Carl Levin and a shameless group of dishonest, power hungry politicos who are all on record dedicated to disarming free people everywhere. If they out PR us, they win. Are you willing to let that happen? I sure as heck hope not.

One of the most effective maneuvers I have implemented in my activism is bringing the truth to children in schools. Not too long ago, nearly all the grade-schoolers in a New York community actually believed the white-tailed deer was an endangered species! This was during a period when deer numbers in those same regions were at historic highs! Think about that one for a minute. That is not a result of anti's action, it is a direct result of our non-action, and we should be ashamed of ourselves. When I do a room-father gitdown at my children's schools or a DARE program at schools around the country, I bring in mounted deerheads, bows and arrows and backstraps to grill on a hibachi in order to bring home the point once and for all to the kids that deer are everywhere and that they are a renewable source of FOOD! The kids get it right now and they will not forget it, I promise you. Our Ted Nugent United Sportsmen of America members and directors have been doing that for 12 years now, and we very much hope other sport groups would wake up to this most important recruitment program and get cracking.

It's called activism. It is simply standing up for what you believe in, but not waiting for the enemy to get in a lick. We must be the pro-active initiators, getting the truth into everyone's lives to establish a basic understanding by society in general so as to create a fact filled intellectual defense barrier against any enemy intrusion. The best defense is always a well thought out offense. Ya think!

Wear a clean camouflage hunting shirt everyday you can. Wear a hunting club cap and smile courteously at everyone. Think about how you can impact all those people you shop with, go to movies with, eat with, worship with and interact at every level with. A well-groomed, friendly demeanor goes a long way in countering the lies that we are all drunken Bubbas, I assure you. Put that hunting decal on your vehicle window, and drive courteously, offering someone a prime parking spot or a friendly wave and smile. Put that hunt sticker on your office window and tell your business associates how great your last hunt was. Have photos of the family with guns and game on the walls where you display your pride for all to see. In the absence of all this positive visibility, the lies of our enemies more effectively take root. DO NOT LET THAT HAPPEN JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE TOO LAZY TO BEAT THEM AT THEIR OWN GAME!

Remember, I'm the MotorCity MadMan. I scare white folk with my guitar and attitude. Yet still I am greeted everyday by friendly, open people from every walk of life. The National Arbor Day Foundation gave me a Conservationist of The Year Award. The Michigan Legislature was not afraid to name me Conservationist of the Year. I am a DARE officer, constantly invited to speak to grade school children. I represent Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Students Against Destructive Decisions, The NRA, the NFAA, and Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Dying children request to hunt with me as their last wish. Members of the clergy use my name as a role model during sermons. Good grief! If I can break down those petty walls of presumptuousness against rock-n-roll, hunting and gunner stereotypes, anybody can and everybody darn well oughtta. Quite honestly, any hunter or gunner who fails to fight this imperative PR war is no friend of mine and certainly no friend of hunting or America. I've always said that we must stand loud and proud to destroy the evil lies of the anti-nature and anti-American fools out there. In an honest analysis of this cultural war, the true curse is not our enemies and their lies, but rather the apathetic laziness or maybe just plain stupidity of our own outdoor community in failing to confront the beast. I've heard the pathetic excuse making forever how we hunters are "loners"! Give me a break! That's just a feeble and cowardly excuse for not facing those who would deny us our freedoms and rights. Enough already! It is hi-time we slay that beast once and for all. And it's so simple it's stupid. PR my friends. Public relations 101. What did you do today?