In the course of forty years, Charlton Heston has made an amazing journey: from widely admired progressive icon of the early 1960s, to his present status as one of the most reviled figures in the liberal pantheon of bogeymen. The shift from staunch gun control advocate to the passionate opponent of such legislation is a contrast so stark that some observers have come to suspect severe personality disintegration, citing as evidence his many public statements:
 
1. From Heston's keynote address at the Free Congress in December 20, 1997:
 
"I have come to realize that a cultural war is raging across our land...storming our values, assaulting our freedoms, killing our self-confidence in who we are and what we believe..... You have been assaulted and robbed of the courage of your convictions. Your pride in who you are and what you believe, has been ridiculed, ransacked and plundered. It may be a war without bullets or bloodshed, but with just as much liberty lost. You and your country are less free"
 
"Because Bill Clinton's cultural warriors want a penitent cleansing of firearms, as if millions of lawful gun owners should genuflect in shame and seek absolution by surrendering their guns. That's what is now literally underway in England and Australia. Lines of submissive citizens, threatened with imprisonment, are bitterly surrendering family heirlooms, guns that won their freedom, to the blast furnace. If that fact does not unsettle you, then you are already anesthetized, a ready victim of the cultural war."
 
"I remember when European Jews feared to admit their faith. The Nazis forced them to wear yellow stars as identity badges. It worked. So - what color star will they pin on gun owners' chests? How will the self-styled elite tag us? There may not be a Gestapo officer on every street corner, but the influence on our culture is just as pervasive."
 
"Heaven help the God-fearing, law-abiding, Caucasian, middle class, Protestant, or-even worse- admitted heterosexual, gun-owning or-even worse-NRA-card-carrying, average working stiff, or-even worse-male working stiff, because not only don't you count, you're a downright obstacle to social progress... . And frankly, mister, you need to wake up, wise up and learn a little something about your new America"
 
"The Constitution was handed down to guide us by a bunch of wise old dead white guys who invented our country. Now some flinch when I say that. Why? It's true... they were white guys. So were most of the guys that died in Lincoln's name opposing slavery in the 1860s. So why should I be ashamed of white guys?"
 
"You know that I stand first in line in defense for free speech. But those who speak against the perverted and profane should be given as much due as those who profit by it. You also know I welcome cultural diversity. But those who choose to live on the fringe should not tear apart the seams that secure the fabric of our society... . Many homosexuals are hugely talented artists and executives... also dear friends. I don't despise their lifestyle, though I don't share it. As long as gay and lesbian Americans are as productive, law-abiding and private as the rest of us, I think America owes them absolute tolerance. It's the right thing to do."
 
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2. From Heston's speech at Yale, April 16, 1999, urging students to resist efforts to deprive them of their guns and basic civil liberties - a speech in which he made reference to "our uniquely American genes":
 
"Follow in the hallowed footsteps of the great disobedience movements of history that freed exiles, founded religions, defeated tyrants, and in the hands of an aroused rabble in arms and a few great men, by God's grace, built this country. If Dr. King were here, I think he would agree."
 
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3. From the Washington Post, May 21. 2000:
 
NRA President Charlton Heston, raising a muzzle-loading musket over his head, told more than 20,000 cheering NRA members: "As we set out this year to defeat the divisive forces that would take our freedom away, I want to [repeat] for everyone within the sound of my voice to hear and to heed, and especially for you Mr. Gore: From my cold dead hands!"