Ted Nugent says that recidivism is to blame for the recent rise in violent crime and gun violence in America.
Homicides spiked by 30% in 2020 over the previous year, according to data provided by the White House. In the first quarter of this year, the nationwide homicide rate was 24% higher than it was in the same period of 2020 and 49% higher than two years ago.
A board member of the National Rifle Association, Nugent addressed the hot-button issue during his July 12 YouTube livestream. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Dallas, Texas — shame on you. Same law as San Francisco and L.A.: if you steal under $950 worth of merchandise from a business, they won’t prosecute you. This is insanity. ‘Crime’s out of control.’ Because you’re rewarding criminal behavior. They don’t prosecute people caught with guns in Chicago or Detroit or New York or New Jersey or California — they don’t prosecute people violating one of the thousands of gun laws, but the next gun law’s gonna stop ’em.
“Bad guys need to be locked up,” he continued. “If they shoot or stab people, I don’t care if they even miss, that’s a dangerous, vicious, evil act. We don’t want people capable of dangerous, vicious, evil acts walking our streets. We want them either dead or in a cage — forever.
“We’re living in engineered recidivism,” Nugent said, referencing a measure of convicted criminals who commit another offense and re-enter prison. “The failed court system, the crime-celebrating prosecutors and attorneys are engineering recidivism. Ninety-six percent of violent crimes are committed by people that were let out for violent crimes. Here’s a little guitar player idea: don’t let ’em out.
“There isn’t a gun problem in America,” Ted added. “There is an intentional engineered recidivism problem in America. You wanna stop ninety-six percent of the violent crimes. Don’t let ’em out.”
According to CNN, a report released last month by The Sentencing Project showed, in part, that serving multiple decades behind bars isn’t an effective way to decrease violent crimes and recidivism rates. The report went on to say that “sensationalism” in media reporting about violent crime contributes to the pressure for longer sentences. The report also concluded that in most international studies of recidivism, people convicted of murder or other violence re-offended less than 10% of the time.
This past March, Nugent threatened President Joe Biden and other Democrats, telling them to “come and take it” just hours before the House of Representatives passed two gun-safety bills.
In a March 11 Facebook post, Nugent addressed Biden and “all you other oath violating traitors,” writing, “Google my address and itinerary and Come and Take It!” He also proclaimed, “If you want to play Concorde bridge again, you will be the British and I will be the Americans, again.”
