When having people over to dinner, it’s best not to discuss politics, religion – or guns. That’s something the actor Charlton Heston and Laurence Tribe, the Harvard constitutional scholar, figured out – sort of.
But first, a little background.
Tribe, the liberal legal expert who spoke with editors of The Fiscal Times this week about his new book, Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution, includes a chapter about gun rights.
Related: Gun Control – A New Look at the Second Amendment
In the 2008 landmark 5-4 Supreme Court decision, District of Columbia v. Heller, the court held that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes (such as self-defense within the home) against federal regulation – something not clearly articulated before.
Two years after that ruling, SCOTUS “extended that newly recognized right to armed self-defense,” says Tribe in his book, “into a shield against state and local gun laws,” in its ruling in McDonald v. Chicago.
Back in 2000, however, Tribe received a phone call from the Oscar-winning actor, then president of the National Rifle Association.
Tribe had just released a startling statement in the third edition of his treatise on constitutional law, surprising his liberal friends on this issue, he told The Fiscal Times. “I included a very, very, very long footnote about why I thought the Second Amendment was not limited to state militias, even though there’s that preamble [in the amendment], but that it does to some extent protect personal rights.”
Related: Gun Culture Puts Target and Other Chains in the Line of Fire
Tribe described the reaction that followed: “There was a front page story in The New York Times saying that a leading liberal scholar said the Second Amendment protects gun owners.”
Enter Heston.
“I got a call immediately from Charlton Heston,” said Tribe. “He called me up and said, ‘Professor Tribe, I think we have a lot in common here’ – he was then the president of the NRA – ‘and I have a private plane waiting at Logan and an island that I would like to take you to. And we can discuss all of these things over some margaritas or whatever.”
Dramatic pause on Tribe’s part – but the private plane (or the booze) had nothing to do with it. “I said right away, ‘Whoa, Mr. Heston. I’m a great admirer of yours and I loved Planet of the Apes,’” he recounted on Tuesday. “‘But I don’t think we’re on the same page here. I’m in favor of strong gun safety regulations and rules that I think are consistent with the Second Amendment.’”