In a letter released to the media, Michael Moore ("Bowling for Columbine") takes on NRA President, Charlton Heston:
October 30, 2002
To: Charlton Heston, President, NRA
From: Michael Moore, Winner, NRA Marksman Award
Subject: Your Visit to Tucson Today in the Wake of Another School Shooting
Dear Mr. Heston:
When you showed up in Denver to hold your pro-gun rally just days after the massacre at nearby Columbine High School, the nation was shocked at your incredible insensitivity to those who had just lost loved ones.
When you came to Flint to hold another rally in the months after a 6-year old boy shot a 6-year old girl at a nearby elementary school, the community was stunned by your desire to rub its face in its grief.
But your announcement that you are on your way to Tucson today, just 48 hours after a student at the University of Arizona shot and killed three professors and then himself, to hold ANOTHER big pro-gun celebration -- this time to get out the vote for the NRA-backed Republican running for Congress -- well, sir, I have to ask you: Have you no shame?
I am asking that you not go to Tucson today. Do not cause any more grief, any more pain. Let the relatives and friends of the deceased mourn. Why show up to play the role of the bully, kicking these good people when they are down, just so you can prove that you have a right to your big, bad guns? These are not the actions of a once brave and decent man. They are the acts of a coward, as no man of courage would think of picking on his fellow citizens when they are so consumed with tragedy.
Obviously, you couldn't care less. Because to you, The Gun is supreme -- and wherever it is used to kill multiple people (preferably at a school), there shall we find you gloating about some misbegotten right you think you have to own a device that is designed to eliminate human life.
Well, Mr. Heston, this time I think you have crossed the line. I hope that your efforts as a gun supremacist -- you are now, I understand, in the middle of a 12-state tour to help elect Republicans -- backfire on you in the surest way that it can: total rejection of you, the NRA, and the candidates you back come next Tuesday. The American people have had enough.
To the people of Tucson and the students at the University of Arizona, I am so sorry for the tragedy you have suffered, and I feel terribly sad that you will have to endure the sight of Charlton Heston and his gun nuts today. Take some solace in knowing that your fellow Americans by an overwhelming margin want tough gun laws -- and that the day of obtaining them is not far away. There is one small way to make sure Heston and the NRA are stopped in their tracks -- just check out the website of the man (http://www.grijalva2002.com/) they have come to Tucson to defeat. Let them pack their guns -- we will pack the polls!
Yours,
Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
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