Charlton Heston, Civil Rights Activist

The NRA must be the most successful advocate of individual civil liberties anywhere in the world. I know that's a big, broad claim, but I think it's true.

The civil liberty that the NRA defends is the right of individuals to carry arms. For the NRA, that means mostly firearms, and the NRA fights for the right to carry them. The NRA's favorite liberty has plenty of enemies. Governments and the busybodies that they employ have the same persistent urge to restrain gun rights as any other rights.

The NRA makes a lot of noise about its setbacks and losses. But don't let that fool you. The right to keep and carry arms is much more broadly respected by jurisdictions all over the United States than it was five, ten, or 20 years ago. What other civil rights can you say that about? In the case of gun rights, the opponents of liberty are losing. What a joy to be able to say that about the enemies of any individual liberty! I'll repeat myself just for fun: They are on their heels and in retreat. They are getting their butts kicked and handed to them in a sling. In the tally sheets, their loss column is long and crowded.

According to the Washington Post, 48 states now have "processes that allow people to legally carry firearms for self defense, compared with six states in 1982." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/27/AR2008022703131.html?hpid=sec-nation.) In the same article, an opponent of a proposal to allow more guns in national parks whines about how good the NRA is at lobbying: "It's a political maneuver by the NRA. They are using this as a political tool to build up support heading into the elections." Don't you wish the opponents of other liberties were crying the same tears over the anti-tax lobby or the drug decriminalization lobby or the tame-the-commerce-clause lobby or the private property lobby?

I predict that several obituaries will paint Charlton Heston's presidency of the NRA as a blot on his career. Others will say that he honored the NRA by taking that office. I say that, more than any Oscar, his presidency of the NRA honored him. May he rest in peace.