Video: Charlton Heston’s “From my cold dead hands” speech to the NRA

Here’s one of a number of speeches that Charlton Heston delivered at the annual NRA convention. In this video clip, we can see why Heston was so effective as a spokesman for the gun rights activists. He was an impressive public speaker with a beautiful voice, perfect cadence, and evocative language.

Heston was the president (a largely ceremonial position) of the NRA from 1998 until he resigned in 2003. Holding a rifle over his head, he repeated the phrase “from my dead cold hands” at the end of each NRA convention over which he presided.

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