I have a small confession to make: I really dig a lot of what Ted Nugent has to say.

He is an outspoken conservationist. I’m envious of how deeply in touch he is with the great outdoors. When he’s at his best, he reminds me that I spend way too much time away from the affirmation of life that is hunting, fishing, and trapping.

I smile to myself when his in-your-face attitude and unapologetic love of our natural rights to armed self defense causes gun control supporters to quake with rage as their shallow emotional arguments fall on deaf ears. It’s simply glorious to watch “Uncle Ted” at his best.

The thing is, Nugent has been on a real tear lately of saying things that are far from “his best.” These weren’t off the cuff statements, taken out of context. He has deliberately chosen and re-posted vile content unworthy of both the Ted Nugent I like so much, and by extension, the National Rifle Association, where he is among our most public members of the Board of Directors.

In February, he posted a disgusting meme commonly shared on anti-Semitic and white nationalist conspiracy sites, asserting that gun control is a Jewish or Israeli plot against the U. S. Constitution. He didn’t have the integrity to apologize, and instead attempted to excuse his behavior.

Yesterday afternoon he stepped in it again.

The anti-gun media is of course loving this.  Nugent’s decision to share this stupid, pointless and violent sentiment of one Democrat Presidential candidate murdering the other in cold blood perpetuates the unwarranted stereotype that gun owners in general (and the NRA in specific) crave the deaths of opponents. The much different reality of the matter is that we regularly “slaughter” with facts, logic, and reason.

Thanks, Ted.

In an edited video posted on Facebook by conservative rock star Ted Nugent, Bernie Sanders shoots Hillary Clinton.

In the video clip from a CNN debate, the Democratic presidential rivals are discussing gun control when a smirking Sanders pulls out a gun, edited into the video, and shoots Clinton, the Democratic front-runner.

“It’s not a laughing matter. Ninety people on average a day are killed,” Clinton says before she is edited to appear to be shot and falls off stage.

The moderator then cuts to a commercial break.

“I got your gun control right here b—,” Nugent wrote in a caption accompanying his post. The rocker, who has previously been criticized for what some say are anti-Semitic and racist comments, noted the Facebook post is going viral.

As an NRA member, I want to communicate to the world that is not who we are as an organization. This filth is not what we represent as part of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights group.  In particular, this is beneath Nugent as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Rifle Association.

I’ve watched the NRA pour incredible time and effort into a 19-spot campaign over the past year depicting us for who we really are, “Freedom’s Safest Place.”

In one stupid and pointless post, Mr. Nugent has done great harm to that image, giving enemies of the natural right to bear arms more ammunition to depict us as being violent, dim-witted, and crude.

Mr. Nugent can still make it right, of course.

He could make a statement acknowledging that he (once again) made the very human mistake of publishing something that was in exceedingly poor taste in a careless moment.

I’m concerned, however, that he is going to do what he did in February.  If Ted Nugent is going to get “stuck on stupid” and double-down once more on something that he never should have posted, maybe he should start thinking about if he really cares more about his own ego, or about the organization he has so poorly representing in these last few months.

Get your house in order, Mr. Nugent.

If you can’t control yourself, sir, maybe it’s time to man up and resign, before you cause any more damage to the NRA and the 5 million people it represents.