Nugent is an advocate of the right to bear arms, but while performing he instructs venues to not allow firearms. When interviewed by "Texas Monthly" editor Evan Smith in season 5 of TexasMonthlyTalks he said, "I would rather that victim of violent crime in Massachusetts last month who was taking her daughter to soccer when they were carjacked by a recidivist maggot, who had been in the prison system all his life but was let out again because we feel sorry for him, maybe he had a bad childhood – instead of her being hijacked and murdered, I'd rather she just shot the bastard dead... But in Massachusetts, somebody decided she can't do that. So she's dead. I would rather she was alive and the carjacker was dead."