“. . . The right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” — 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
“You shall not commit murder.” — Moses quoting God
“. . . I was not on hand to help pen the Bill of Rights. . . . The same goes for the 10 Commandments. Yet as an American and as a man who believes in God’s almighty power, I treasure both.” — Charlton Heston
Now that the man who played Moses in the big-screen version has been elected president of the National Rifle Association, some questions present themselves.
“So, sir, which way you gonna go?
“Which is more important: the constitutional amendment written by old white men who believed well-armed militias were a good defense against the oppressions of strong central government, or that older set of laws God gave to Moses?”
The Constitution was the result of delicate compromise, a lot of foresight and a sense that unpleasant political history would repeat itself unless some rules were clearly drawn. It was viewed as a wise thing to have a militia with muskets on hand (some states even specified what kind of muskets) just to keep everything in balance.
Of course, the founders also thought voting should be restricted to white guys with landholdings, that a woman’s place was wherever her man wanted to put her, that illness was caused by night vapors and that the size of cities would be limited by their inability to handle any more horse dung than was already piling up.
Just as we are, they were creatures trapped in the amber of their own narrow culture, which is what makes the survival of the nation they created from a clunking, stumbling collection of competing states even more remarkable.
They did not foresee automatic weapons. They did not foresee murderous teenagers and drug and gang violence. They did not foresee an era in which love triangles would become an explanation for homicide by firearm.
They did not foresee parents who are so remarkably stupid that they would leave a loaded gun within the reach of a child. They did not foresee public schools–let alone public school yards–where the ghosts of young firearms victims will always float in their aching silence.
The Bible was different.
Even in the movie, Moses and God did not negotiate.
Every time God spoke, there was a thunderclap. These were the rules. Depending on where you read in the Old Testament, either the 6th Commandment (Exodus) or the 5th Commandment (Deuteronomy) says, “You Shall Not Kill.”
Given that reality–a political document based on the tenor of the times versus God’s sacred word handed down to Moses–what’s a 73-year-old former movie star to do?
Well, you don’t have to guess, because it’s all in the script crafted by the NRA.
He will do what most other NRA presidents have done over time.
He will crank and crab and complain and preach to an already converted congregation about the constitutional right to own a weapon. He will unleash the diminished fury of an ailing political lobby on the most susceptible part of Congress, those among the conservatives who have seen their revolution crumble in the face of the compromise and yielding that has always defined American politics.
In the process, he will, perhaps inadvertently, widen the gap that exists between reason and unreason on the question of guns, making it even more difficult for a troubled society to come to grips with one of the great plagues of modern life.
The NRA turned to Charlton Heston for a very practical reason.
In the wake of the Oklahoma City federal building bombing and the blossoming of paranoid, heavily armed militias in every state that had woods to play in and Army surplus fatigues to sell, the NRA started to look more like a radical front than a political interest group.
It seemed to be embracing a whole collection of itchy-trigger-fingered rustics eager to babble about black helicopters, the UN’s push for world government and Russkies masquerading as National Guardsmen and so on.
All of this made calm, reasonable gun owners–and there are a lot of them who use their weapons as tools for hunting and sport, not as substitutes for a sense of security–so nervous they dropped their NRA memberships like hot shell casings.
So the NRA turned to what it believed might be viewed as the Voice of Reason, in the form of Heston, for some help.
Maybe Paul Newman could pull it off, but he’s on the other wing in this battle. Heston? No way.
He is already way out there on the distant right wing of politics. Even back when he was calling reporters at night to pump for President Ronald Reagan II (“I’ve been briefed by the White House, and I have some things to tell you about foreign policy . . .”), he was drifting far to the right.
This is a centrist nation, for the most part. It likes its politics in the middle, as anyone who has strayed too far to the right or left eventually has discovered.
Does this sound moderate? (NRA opponents already are making a lot of this address by Heston to the Free Congress Foundation’s 20th anniversary gala on Dec. 7, 1997. It is going to follow him everywhere he goes.)
“I have come to realize that a cultural war is raging across our land . . . storming our values, assaulting our freedoms, killing our self-confidence in who we are and what we believe, where we come from . . .”
(Wade through this next passage, which proves that although Heston may be getting long in the tooth, he still has a great set of lungs):
“Rank-and-file Americans wake up every morning, increasingly bewildered and confused as to why their views make them lesser citizens. After enough breakfast-table TV promos hyping tattooed sex-slaves on the next `Ricki Lake’ show, enough gun-glutted movies and tabloid talk shows, enough revisionist history books and prime-time ridicule of religion, enough of the TV anchor who cocks her pretty head, clucks her tongue and sighs about guns causing crime, and finally the message gets through: Heaven help the God-fearing, law-abiding, Caucasian, middle-class Protestant or–even worse–evangelical Christian, Midwest, or Southern or–even worse–rural, apparently straight or–even worse–admittedly heterosexual, gun-owning or–even worse–NRA card-carrying, average working stiff, or–even worse– male working stiff, because not only don’t you count, you’re a downright obstacle to social progress . . . .”
All of this defines Heston’s cultural war.
By using opposites as a measure and borrowing his metier, elitist, non-gun-owning, African-American, Jewish, Roman Catholic, East and West Coast-living, homosexual and–even worse–wealthy, female, bond coupon-clipping parasites best watch out because Moses will be aiming his steely-eyed gaze right at them.
Of course, he also says some of his friends are homosexuals and are very artistic and you have to go with whatever floats your boat.
But enough of that.
Moses, it’s time to call in some new script writers.
It’s time for the NRA to recognize that it’s the message, not the messenger, that is worn out. There is nothing anyone can send over from central casting that can change that.
Maybe it’s time for everyone to realize that the political war on guns has been fought on the margins for too long. There are a lot of people in the U.S. who would never think for an instant of using a gun for anything other than sport.
These people run the risk once again of being cast in with street toughs, wife killers, midnight shooters, mental defectives with grudges and primitives with fantasies of black helicopters and world government conspiracies as long as they are marching with a group that simply will not recognize the time for sensible firearms policy is right now.
The NRA doesn’t need the charisma of Moses.
It needs the wisdom of Solomon.
