March 30, 2000
Heston sees gun fight as part of a larger PC 'cultural war'
By Robert Stacy McCain
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Defending the right of Americans to own guns is not "just
about guns,"
but rather is part of a "cultural war" against political
correctness, actor
Charlton Heston said last night.
"What I confronted when I became president of the [National
Rifle
Association] is an overwhelming Orwellian tyranny sweeping this
country, a
fanatic fervor of politically correct thought and language," Mr.
Heston said
in a speech at Georgetown University.
The 75-year-old actor, who portrayed Moses in "The Ten
Commandments,"
said that when he accepted the presidency of the NRA, he "went
straight from
Moses to the devil . . . from celluloid saint to cultural
sinner" according
to his critics.
"Get involved with a politically unpopular cause and you'll
quickly find
out who your friends are," Mr. Heston told the audience of more
than 700
students who packed Georgetown's Gaston Hall.
"At first I thought the issue was just about guns," he
said, adding that
he has since learned "that the gun debate is a lot more
complicated."
Having been struck by "the bombshells of the cultural war,"
Mr. Heston
compared that conflict to the War Between the States: "Today the
battle is
for your hearts and minds, for the freedom to think the way you
choose to
think, to follow that moral compass that points to what's
right."
Mr. Heston said his position as NRA president is based on
firm principle.
"I believe very strongly in the Bill of Rights," he said,
"and the
Second Amendment provision to keep and bear arms is one of those
rights. . .
. Should law-abiding citizens be able to own them, or should a
Big Brother
government say no? Seems simple enough, right?"
Those who disagree with Mr. Heston were out in force
yesterday at
Georgetown, as three Democratic lawmakers — Illinois Sen.
Richard J. Durbin,
Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, and Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro —
spoke to an
anti-gun rally sponsored by the university's Campus Alliance to
End Gun
Violence. The alliance also sponsored a panel discussion on guns
yesterday.
Eight television crews were on hand last night for Mr.
Heston's speech,
which was sponsored by the university's Lecture Fund.
Taking questions from students after his speech, Mr. Heston
said he
thought Republican candidate George W. Bush "would be a good
president" who
would support the NRA's position on guns.
Emphasizing the importance of this year's election, Mr.
Heston urged
students, "Whoever you vote for, for God's sake vote."
One student prefaced a question by citing a statement by
President
Clinton at a news conference yesterday, prompting Mr. Heston to
reply: "I
must say, I feel more comfortable with the opinions of the
Founding Fathers."
In his speech, Mr. Heston urged Georgetown students to
reject political
correctness, "a cultural cancer that is eating away at our
society."
"Don't let America's universities serve as incubators for a
rampant
epidemic of this new brand of McCarthyism," he said.
College students "now appear to be the most socially
conformed and politi
cally silenced generation since Concord Bridge," he said,
referring to the
1775 battle that opened the American Revolution.
If the Founding Fathers had been "enamored with political
correctness,"
he said, "we'd still be King George's boys."
Updated at 6:00 a.m.
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