Charlton Heston

The following viewpoint is excerpted from testimony that Charlton Heston, the president of the National Rifle Association, gave before the U.S. House of Representatives on November 4, 1999. In it, he rejects the idea that new, stronger gun control laws are needed to reduce gun violence. He points to Project Exile, a Virginia program in which local law enforcement, state prosecutors, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) work together to aggressively prosecute criminals found in possession of a firearm. Heston says that in contrast to Virginia’s program, the federal government has been lax in prosecuting gun crimes. The federal government should not pass new gun control legislation, he concludes, because it has failed to aggressively enforce the laws that are already on the books.

As you read, consider...