BEFORE CHARLTON HESTON was even a glimmer in the gun sights of the National Rifle Association, there was Barry Goldwater.
The conscience of America's conservatives was standing tall for America's gun owners, gun manufacturers and gun-company lobbyists - posing with his favorite rifle in impressive magazine and newspaper ads that proclaimed: "I'm the NRA."And so he was. Arizona's Republican senator was proud to be the NRA's poster person. As a lifelong hunter and sports shooter, he embodied the NRA's purpose and championed the NRA's cause.
But when a nut with a rapid-firing AK47 walked into a schoolyard in Stockton, Calif., in January 1989 and squeezed off 100 rounds in just two minutes, killing five children and wounding 30 more, Sen. Goldwater departed from the "guns-don't-kill, people-do" mantra of the NRA and championed the cause of common sense.
"I'm completely opposed to selling automatic rifles," he told The Washington Post. ". . . I've been a member of the NRA. I collect, make and shoot guns. I've never used an automatic or semiautomatic for hunting. There's no need to. They have no place in anybody's arsenal. If any SOB can't hit a deer with one shot, then he ought to quit shooting."
That bit of blunt candor was overlooked by just about everyone in the media in coverage of the latest back-to-back news stories - the death of Barry Goldwater and the election of Charlton Heston as NRA president. And that's too bad. Because both stories could have gained valuable depth perception by recalling how Sen. Goldwater injected uncompromised sanity into the stream of sloganeering by the PR pros who claim to speak for hunters and sports shooters, while representing the gun industry.
Comes now Charlton Heston, a genuine Hollywood bigwig if there ever was one. He will certainly add much-needed PR star power to a gun-lobbying organization that has lost much of its political firepower. No sooner had the NRA elected him as its president at their meeting in Philadelphia this week than Heston demonstrated his talent for commanding prime time on all TV newscasts.
Heston began his reign as NRA president with a double-barreled PR salvo. But his only public relations problem was that the two barrels seemed to be aimed in opposite directions.
So you could see him on all networks, proclaiming a new moderation for the NRA. He declared his intention to channel the NRA back to the political mainstream , conceding the organization had been operating on "the fringe of American life."
But seconds later, you could see Heston sounding the same old NRA hard line on the subject of the recent massacres at schools in Arkansas, Kentucky and Oregon, committed by youths with access to rapid-firing weapons. "This is not a gun issue - this is a child issue," Heston said on NBC's "Today Show." He repeated the line at every occasion. And he inevitably followed by switching targets in mid-discussion: "What we need to do is prosecute felons with guns."
That's true; we need more money for enforcement and no doubt more backbone for some judges. But weren't we talking about kids and guns?
More moderation: Urging President Clinton to increase funds for prosecuting felons who buy guns, Heston vowed not to take shots that "deflect public attention from the real problems we face."
In his new role, Charlton Heston would be wise to cast himself as Barry Goldwater, straight-shooting, straight-talking rifleman of the NRA.