Charlton Heston & the Gun Control Act of 1968 "A no-compromise Gun Lobby for the Nation!"

This page contains a collection of links to evidence that has been obtained from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library that proves Heston’s involvement in the effort to expand the Gun Control Act of 1968 to include new restrictions on the sales of rifles and shotguns that were not originally present in the House and Senate bills. An attempt has been made to duplicate the look and layout of the documents, and each of the pages below has a link by which the reader can obtain an actual scanned GIF version of the document. Doubting Thomases can call the LBJ Library themselves (contact info is on their home page) and verify the material's provenance.

As nearly as possible, typos and misspellings are exactly as they appear in the original documents.

June 12, 1968 telegram from Larry Levinson, Deputy Special Counsel to LBJ, to Charlton Heston.

June 12, 1968 memo from Levinson to a Mr. Charles Maguire, stating that Heston would help with the GCA ’68 effort.

June 18, 1968 memo from Levinson to LBJ, detailing the participation of five actors in the GCA ’68 campaign. Heston is listed by name.

June 20, 1968 memo from Joe Califano, Special Assistant to LBJ, recording the statement that Heston et al read on the Joey Bishop Show on June 18, 1968. The memo has as an enclosure a memo from the PR firm of Rogers, Cowan, & Brenner that lists organizational details for setting up the Bishop show event, and in turn has as an enclosure the 3-page statement that Heston et al read on the Joey Bishop show and released publicly to Associated Press and United Press International under their names.

June 18, 1968 letter from the PR firm, that was enclosed with the Califano memo mentioned above.

Heston et al’s 3-page statement that Heston read on the Joey Bishop show. The statement is full of the same screeching emotional arguments that we still see today, and urges strong support for expanding the scope of GCA ’68 to include new controls on the sale of rifles and shotguns.

October 10, 1968 article from American Rifleman detailing Heston’s involvement with Tom Laughlin’s Hollywood gun control group. Laughlin praised Heston as a “die-hard” supporter who continued to stand by him when other stars left the gun-control bandwagon.