James Fisher 1

Charlton Heston NRA Speech

On May 20th, 2000 a veteran actor and (at the time) National Rifle Association (NRA)

President, Charlton Heston did a speech at the 129th NRA convention in Charlotte, North

Carolina. In my honest opinion, this piece of rhetoric was done very well and was quite moving.

This was during the time of a Presidential election; Al Gore and George Bush were both running

head to head. The intention of this speech was to get every gun owner in America to take a stand

against Al Gore’s opposition to privately owned weapons. This speech was made famous by

Heston’s use of the already famous slogan "I will give up my gun when they peel my cold dead

fingers from around it.” This statement had originated back in 1976 by another gun rights group

called the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, which happened to be based

here in Bellevue, Washington. Heston concludes his speech with the words: “So, as we set out

this year to defeat the divisive forces that would take freedom away, I want to say those fighting

words for everyone within the sound of my voice to hear and to heed, and especially for you,

(Mr. Gore): 'From my cold, dead hands!”

First off, taking a step back, lets’ understand the context and environment of this

particular speech. This speech was given at a NRA convention. The audience Heston is

speaking to is already on his side, the people in the audience do not need the extra convincing;

they all showed up to this convention because they more than likely support the cause. It isn’t

very often, that someone who opposes an idea or group actually shows up to heckle or show their

dismay… Unless they are looking to get beat up of course. The video recording of this speech

pans out to the audience just a few times, and each time it does the only kind of people I see are

middle age to elderly white men. Heston’s intended demographic is all gun-owners and judging
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by the audience, this speech depicts all gun-owners as older white males. His speech relates to

historic moments within America, such as how men from all over had to grab their muskets and

go fight against the British, these noble minutemen fought for this country and if it weren’t for

those farmers who had used their own muskets, we would have lost the war.

Secondly, what is Heston’s purpose for defending our right to bear arms? Does he have

anything to gain? Well, at the time he was the President of the NRA, without the right to bear

arms he would essentially be out of a job. The NRA gets millions of dollars from supporters

each year, majority of these financial donations are from gun manufacturing companies. Gun

retailers in America know that without the NRA they have little to no representation for the

support of the second amendment (Right to bear arms). Ultimately, without the support of gun

retailers there would be no NRA, and without the NRA there wouldn’t be any gun retailers. So,

there could be some hidden reasoning for such a passionate right to bear arms speech from

Heston.

Thirdly, it wouldn’t be fair to analyze this speech without looking into Heston’s past.

Heston is a man who has done it all, from serving in the United States Army Air Forces as a

aerial gunner aboard a B-25 to being active in politics since 1956 having had campaigned for

John F Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush. Also, he was one of the first active

celebrities to stand up against racism having accompanied Martin Luther King during many of

his speeches. The thing Heston loved most was acting, he had been in several hit films and

television shows such as “The Greatest Show on Earth” and “Touch of Evil”. It is safe to say

that Mr. Heston was pretty comfortable in front of large crowds and audiences from his years of

acting as well as participating and supporting several monumental speeches over the years. His

ability to convince an audience with his use of words is astounding; he does just that with his
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speech for the NRA convention. He makes Al Gore and all other groups trying to take away or

diminish gun rights in some way out to be the evil enemy. This extensive history of Heston’s

allows for him to be extremely credible for he has done and seen things that these second

amendment oppositionists have not. His acting career could play a role in his passionate speech,

what if he was just pretending? Had he not have the NRA President at the time I’d strongly

consider the idea of him just acting like he cared.

Fourthly, this speech of his is a story of how things used to be and how they should

continue to be. Heston emphasizes on the fact that every common man deserves this uncommon

freedom, ordinary hands from simple homes have the choice to hold an extraordinary instrument

(weapon) to symbolize human dignity and liberty. Heston paints this picture for his audience

hoping to inspire them. “When loss of liberty is looming, which it is now” is just one of the

scare tactics he uses during this brief speech to help motivate the American people to take action

for the cause (Heston, 2000).

Fifth and foremost, I’d like to take a look at how Heston’s speech incorporated the five

cannons of rhetoric. First off is invention, the 2nd amendment has been argued against for years,

stating statistics of murders happening by a gun. Heston, doesn’t focus on countering that main

oppositionist stand point, instead he refines his argument by giving a story about our country’s

history. His arrangement of his speech starts as a scare tactic, saying “when freedom shivers in

the cold shadow of true parrell, it’s always the patriots who first hear the call” then continues the

rest of his speech with statements regarding America’s simple man always being able to save the

day with his rifle. Heston’s style is unique, rather than stating what he thinks and why he thinks

that he paints a picture, telling a historical inspiration story. Not once did Heston look down at

his notes, this entire speech was done by memory, no stumbling of words or use of verbal fillers
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such as “ah” or “um”. The delivery of Heston’s speech is what made it so powerful in my

opinion. He spoke very slowly, allowing for his story to sink in. His rugged voice and body

language was perfect for this speech.

In conclusion, I found this speech very inspirational. Heston appealed to the audience in

both pathos and an ethos fashion. He is very credible given his position and past experience, and

he appealed to his audience’s emotions by giving a story of how we Americans fought the

revolutionary war. I feel Heston’s choice of words and his slow dramatic way of presenting

them made his speech very effective. Though his audience was already in major support of his

cause I feel the national publicity he received from this particular speech was immense and his

physical audience in front of him only made the effect of this speech even more powerful by

cheering very loudly. Heston made me think of how America used to be, realizing that this 2nd

amendment is crucial to our American freedom. He made me feel inspired and powerful.

Finally, he made me want to vote against gun rights oppositionists.

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References

Charlton Heston. (2012). Biography.com. Retrieved Oct 18, 2012 from

http://www.biography.com/people/charlton-heston-9337556

Heston, C. (2000). Charlton Heston; From my Cold Dead Hands. long version . Retrieved from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ju4Gla2odw