Ted Nugent to ‘Demilitarize’ Before Attending State of the Union

Ted Nugent, the musician and gun rights activist who last year told an audience at an NRA conference that he’d end up “dead or in jail” if President Obama was re-elected, will attend Tuesday evening’s State of the Union address as the guest of Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas.

But rest assured, the staunch Obama critic told The New York Times that he would not be carrying any weapons to the speech. “I will go in at least 20 pounds lighter than I normally walk,” Nugent said. “I will be going in sans the hardware store on my belt. I live a well-armed life, and I’ve got to demilitarize before I go.”

The New York Times:

In a telephone interview from his ranch in Texas on Monday, Mr. Nugent said that he planned to sit in the House of Representatives gallery during the president’s speech and that he would hold a news conference afterward, an event that seemed likely to turn the decorous setting of the State of the Union into a tabloid spectacle.

But Mr. Nugent, an avid hunter and gun collector who once flirted with running for governor of Michigan, insisted that he would be on his best behavior.

“I will be there with a deep, abiding respect for the office of the presidency,” he said. “I’m not here to represent any specific cause other than freedom and independence and ‘we the people.’ ”

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— Posted by Tracy Bloom.