Michael Moore portrays his position on gun rights as “not anti-gun”, and points to his membership in the NRA (as well as the very guns he owns) as proof.
In Bowling For Columbine, Michael Moore brags that he is a “lifetime member” of the NRA. So it might be expected that Moore would inform viewers about the NRA’s noble anti-slavery history, but not quite. In his brief history of America cartoon he attempts the opposite and does an admirable job of welding racism to the NRA wherever possible as detailed in other places of this site. The main issue here is Moore’s phony respect for the organization. Instead of coming out against it and opposing what he feels are dangerous and detrimental actions, he feigns neutrality in Bowling For Columbine when it is clear he despises the organization.
Just look at what Moore says about the NRA himself :
“After Columbine, I decided that I would run against Charlton Heston for the presidency of the NRA. If elected, my plan was to try to return the NRA to a gun safety organization, instead of its current agenda of gun fanaticism. The rules said that to run for president, you had to be a member for the past five years or buy a lifetime membership for $750. And that’s what I did. But after a while I realized this endeavor was going to take too much time, so I decided to focus all my attention on the movie I was making.”
Too much time… Here Moore actually admits that he’d rather take pot shots and defame those he disagrees with in movies rather than actually make any real change. Perhaps the paycheck from making a movie vs. NRA president was more enticing to Moore than it was to Charlton Heston. Dave Kopel writes:
But Moore’s connection to the NRA is bizarre; he told Tim Russert that he joined the group so that he could be elected its president and make it support gun control. This is aggrandized self-delusion, rather like Barbra Streisand announcing that she was becoming Catholic so that she could be elected Pope and make the Church support polygamy.
Distortion on Heston’s record
Moore says that the NRA is responsible for gun crime despite vigorous and bold efforts by the organization and especially Charlton Heston while he served as president, to curtail gun violence. For instance – Heston was known for taking tough stances like the following:
If you’re a felon out on the streets of Philadelphia today, I dare you to carry a gun,” Heston warned. “Because if you do, you will go to prison. No plea bargain, no discussion. Just a cold, hard federal prison cell. So go ahead — carry a gun on these streets. To quote my good friend Clint Eastwood, ‘Make My Day’. (January 25, 1999)
But then again, Moore and his viewers may equally hate that approach. Others (myself included) love that kind of no nonsense “bring it on” type of threat when concerning violence when the subtext is that “because you will be punished if you dare”. It all depends on whether you’re one of those crazies who like to confront wickedness instead of appease it.
But opinions aside – Moore’s representation of the NRA is dishonest at best.