Ted Nugent lashed out on Friday at the high school students who have led protests against gun violence in recent weeks, calling them “soulless” and “ignorant” in a fiery radio interview.
“I really feel sorry for them because it’s not only ignorant and dangerously stupid, but it’s soulless,” Nugent said during an appearance on “The Joe Pags Show.” “To attack the good, law-abiding families of America when well-known, predictable murderers commit these horrors is deep in the category of soulless.”
“These poor children, I’m afraid to say this and it hurts me to say this, but the evidence is irrefutable, they have no soul,” he added.
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In the interview, Nugent railed against what he called the “dumbing down of America” by schools and teachers, whom he accused of teaching students “lies.”
“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,” he said.
Nugent, a National Rifle Association board member and outspoken supporter of President Trump, has a history of making inflammatory political statements. But he swore off such language last year after a shooter opened fire on a congressional baseball practice in Virginia.
Nugent’s comments came in response to protests by students across the country demanding an end to gun violence.
Those protests have largely been led by students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where a gunman opened fire last month, killing 17 people and injuring 14 others.
That shooting reignited an intense debate about the nation’s firearm laws, as students and anti-gun violence advocates have put pressure on lawmakers to strengthen gun restrictions.