Charlton Heston, RIP

We tend to forget much of the 1990s these days.  After 9/11, that would be expected.  What we remember of the 90s now is a halcyon era where peace and prosperity were considered permanent, and all our problems just seemed smaller and more manageable than they do now.

However, the 1990s was actually a turbulent period in America.  We had a close brush with a health care scheme that would have led to a government takeover of one-seventh of our economy – an economy which had to get out from under two major tax hikes (1991 and 1993).  Saddam Hussein was always a menace, and one who managed to get himself on the front page every couple of years with some provocation against America.

Then there was gun rights.

In 1994, the first gun ban of any kind in sixty years became law, and any effort to repeal it vanished with the Oklahoma City bombings.  The resultant militia scare made any supporter of gun rights look like a complete nut.  Even Republicans were running on “gun control” platforms by 1997.  The following year, despite what we all may remember, the American people rallied to President Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal (I follow Mark Steyn’s theory of Gore fatigue, but that’s for another post).  A massive tobacco tax fell two votes shy of overriding a filibuster attempt in the Senate.  Any talk of a tax cuts were snowed under.  Even the health care debacle of old was partially resurrected as a “patient’s bill of rights.”  It was also the first time we heard what would became the disaster that is Medicare Part D.

Yet it was in 1998 that the gun rights movement was making a comeback, bucking the trend of defeat and demoralization on the right wing.  This was in no small part due to one man – Charlton Heston, who in that year was elected President of the NRA.

Heston made himself a lightning-rod for gun rights, knowing full well that millions of Americans admired him much more than any of his political opponents.  He was one of those rare “celebrities” who was willing to use his popularity for a good cause against difficult odds, even willing to risk losing that popularity as a result.

By the time Heston stepped down five years later, the political world had changed.  Certainly, 9/11 and the WBK War had much to do with that, but 9/11 could just as easily been a gun-control bonanza.  It wasn’t because the gun-rights movement was energized, confident, and mobilized, in a way it never could have been without Heston.  Thus, in 2004, the “assault weapons” ban of 1994 was allowed to sunset.  Four years later, Washington’s ridiculous gun ban seems on the way out, courtesy of the Supreme Court, and with the approval of the Republican nominee for President (Fox News).

Charles Heston died last night at the age of 84 (Washington Post).  Given the nature of MSM, his heroic political success will not be widely reported.  However, I remember what the 1990s were like, and I don’t even want to imagine what would have been had Heston not galvanized the gun-rights movement.

Thanks to him, it didn’t happen.  The man who played so many heroes on the screen became a true hero for American liberty in real life.  Charlton Heston, RIP.