National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent suggested in an April 24 Facebook post that if we’re going to remove Confederate statues “because of the Civil War,” we should “remove mosques because of 9/11.” Nugent’s comment is a reference to recent efforts and movements in several states to remove Confederate statues from public spaces.

Nugent posted the comparison just two days before the NRA annual meeting in Indianapolis, IN, which he announced on April 22 that he’d be attending to “stand up loud and proud for the sacred second amendment and the mighty NRA.” Nugent has made inflammatory comments during previous annual meetings: In 2015 he used an analogy that involved him shooting former Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and in 2012 he called for members to “ride into that battlefield and chop [Democrats’] heads off in November.” The 2018 annual meeting featured a gun line sponsored by Nugent, who branded the product his “American spearchucker series,” a reference to a racial slur used to disparage Africans.   

Nugent has a long history of making pro-Confederate statements and violent comments and using hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric. He received heavy criticism after he pushed the conspiracy theory that Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg was a “crisis actor” and called other Parkland survivors “pathetic” and liars with “no soul.”

Earlier this month, Nugent was reelected to the NRA board of directors through 2022, receiving the second most votes behind NRA President Oliver North.