"I'll give you my gun when you take it from my cold, dead hands!" is a slogan popularized by the National Rifle Association (NRA) on a series of bumper stickers.[1][2] It is a variation of a slogan mentioned in a 1976 report from the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency: "I Will Give Up My Gun When They Peel My Cold Dead Fingers From Around It."[3] The original version did not originate with the NRA, but with another gun rights group, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, based in Bellevue, Washington. It, along with "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns", is a slogan that is often used by gun owners and their supporters in discussions of gun control in the United States.
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The phrase gained newfound popularity on May 20, 2000, when veteran actor and NRA president Charlton Heston capped a speech at the 129th NRA convention in Charlotte, North Carolina by concluding:
| “ | For the next six months, [presidential candidate and Vice President of the United States] Al Gore is going to smear you as the enemy. He will slander you as gun-toting, knuckle-dragging, bloodthirsty maniacs who stand in the way of a safer America. Will you remain silent? I will not remain silent. If we are going to stop this, then it is vital to every law-abiding gun owner in America to register to vote and show up at the polls on election day. | ” |
Near the end of his remarks, Heston paused to pick up a replica of a Revolutionary War musket, and continued:[4]
| “ | So, as we set out this year to defeat the divisive forces that would take freedom away, I want to say those fighting words for everyone within the sound of my voice to hear and to heed, and especially for you, Mr. Gore: 'From my cold, dead hands!'[5] | ” |
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— Charlton Heston, May 20, 2000
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He repeated the phrase at the end of each NRA convention over which he presided as president of the NRA. When he announced his retirement, he concluded by repeating "From my cold, dead hands."[6]
In the 1997 film Men in Black, Edgar, an upstate New York farmer, tells a recently-landed alien when asked to drop his rifle, "You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers." Edgar is then killed, and the alien uses his skin as a disguise.
In 2005, the phrase was parodied by The Onion in their "300th Anniversary" issue dated June 22, 2056. A small item on the page claimed: "Grave robbers pry valuable rifle from Charlton Heston's cold, dead hands".[7] Later in 2008, shortly after Charlton Heston's death, The Onion again parodied the phrase in a photo caption.[8]
A minor alteration of the Phrase is used by the Dwarven Rifleman in Blizzard Entertainment's 2002 Real-time Strategy PC Game, Warcraft III.
  | Charlton Heston death announcement - The New York Times > Log In |
| | N.R.A. leaders cast Gore as archenemy - N.R.A. Leaders Cast Gore as Archenemy |
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