GOT GUN?, Pt. II: Ted Nugent vs. John Lennon

Was my reference to "Happiness is a Warm Gun" in poor taste?

A good friend thought my “NP” (Now Playing) of the other day was in poor taste. It was at the bottom of my column Got Gun? and included The Beatles’ song Happiness is a Warm Gun (along with Robert Cray’s Smoking Gun).

The element of taste, in that person’s mind, and someone whose opinions and thoughts I value, involve Lennon as having been shot - with a gun - by Mark David Chapman in 1980, thus ending Lennon’s life. A fair point… but…

Lennon’s writing of that song, and its inclusion to the 1968 album known colloquially as “The White Album” (its actual title is simply, eponymously, The Beatles) might be seen as serving the maxim: “Live by the gun; die by the gun.” Oh-oh. There’s a trigger for the Taste Police. Double-Oh-Oh… I said “trigger.” LOL. But he did use a metaphorical “gun” to serve space on an album.

I can mount a very nice argument in support of guns by referencing Lennon, though. Imagine (no pun intended) if he was known for packing heat. Would Chapman have approached him with a gun? Sure, he might have got the “drop” on him, but imagine if Lennon was known as a gun enthusiast such as Ted Nugent.

Nugent hunts with a bow. He eats what he kills. He also shoots guns and is an enthusiastic supporter of my right, your right, any responsible American citizen’s right, to own a gun. Nugent “carries” - everywhere. Nugent is also incredibly funny. He’s not without controversy - he’s said some crazy stuff in the past, I’ll grant that.

But one of the funniest lines I’ve heard in awhile is his comment to Joe Rogan regarding Michael Moore (warning; profanity ahead): “You fuck with me I’ll eat your family tree and shit sawdust into your face.” Think anyone is going to approach Ted with a gun? Maybe someone who doesn’t recognize him - but Ted carries everywhere. He’s a trained, certified, and registered Sheriff’s Deputy, and even carries in England.

Chapman knew of Lennon: He knew enough to know that Lennon wouldn’t be carrying a gun. Crazily enough, Chapman had approached Lennon earlier that day for an autograph, then came back later and shot him. Doubtful anyone would follow that schema with Ted.

Now, a quick word to Ted. Ted: Please don’t get shot. You’ll obliterate the point of my column.

Couple Ted things: Rogan and Ted. ← very entertaining. In watching this, Rogan highlights a fundamental mistake in thinking - I think he’s “channeling” liberal thought. He seems to imply that gun rights and “mental health education” are mutually exclusive (at the 9:40 mark). He goes through a litany such as “getting people off pills”… fixing despondent lives, etc. Why-oh-why would someone not see gun rights as parallel to working on the general human condition and in helping individuals?

And how would any particular matter rise to infringing on the right to self-defense?- which in my mind transcends even America, as well as being an intrinsic part of America. But again, I think Rogan is mounting a counter-argument merely to highlight the Left’s view of things, in spurring Ted’s discourse. (Rogan is himself a gun owner).

But also, we’ll never overcome human nature, and there will always be mentally ill people, and just disgruntled people, who will remain outside of best efforts to help them - from whom we must protect ourselves and loved ones. To say nothing of the burgeoning, active, criminal class and associated crime rate with increasingly violent crimes spreading through our nation.

As to banning guns: I’ll tell ya somethin’ - there are people who have their own machine shops. They can mill a gun from scratch. There are people who make and pack their own bullets. There are people who could probably replicate a Lamborghini if they wanted to devote the time. The elimination of guns in America is not only impossible - it is undesirable as well as antithetical to the Constitution and our general American values…

…for, the anti-gun crowd’s true agenda is to remove power from We the People, in their overall drive toward a totalitarian form of government.

Here’s some Ted wisdom for ya: “You ‘Pearl Harbor’ me; I ‘Nagasaki’ you.”

I also like this pearl, and I’m paraphrasing: ‘Trying to ban guns to prevent shootings is like trying to ban water to prevent drownings.’

And Lennon? With a public persona such as his, he could have adjusted that persona to project a strong, armed, posture. I’m not blaming the victim; I’m just saying that Chapman never would have approached him with intent of doing harm.

And me? My good taste remains intact; and I got gun.

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NP: Ted Nugent, Stranglehold (live)

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David Scott Strain is a U.S. Army veteran and a retired Fortune500 I.T. executive.  He is also the author of the novel The Grim Grind of Life:  A PI’s strange bounces through a surfeit of eateries, juke joints, and dark doorways.  Prior, he authored the MBA-text I.T. WARS: Managing the Business-Technology Weave in the New Millennium (UofW, UofMD, more than a dozen others). Books and expanded bio are available on Amazon.