Can the National Rifle Association really be serious about building “mainstream appeal” when it elects Charlton Heston as its president and Oliver North as a director, then selects Trent Lott as its convention’s keynote speaker? That lineup might appear mainstream to members of the Christian Coalition, but it certainly sounds right wing to me.
The majority of Americans living today had not been born when Heston personified Moses in 1956. I vaguely recall seeing “The Ten Commandments,” “Ben-Hur” and “The Agony and the Ecstasy” in my youth, but I’m about to turn 50.
What I remember better is Mr. Heston’s appearance in Des Moines in February 1996 to promote Phil Gramm’s candidacy for president before the televised National Campaign to Protect the Sanctity of Marriage put together by “family values” activist Bill Horn. I also recollect Mr. Heston’s rantings when Michelangelo was included on a list of famous homosexuals. It bothered Mr. Heston that one of his characters could have been gay.
I hope I am wrong, though, about Mr. Heston being an anachronism. If he can motivate more people to read the entire 2nd Amendment rather than merely quoting the mantra “the right to bear arms,” mainstream America might awaken to the need and legality of stronger gun-control laws.
