The NRA may wave around the 2nd amendment to support their stance
That stance being that working for the NRA in DC is a
really cushy job. At some point in time they turned into a perpetually sustaining lobby. If there were no gun laws in this country at all, they would find a way of turning that into a threat to "our freedom" to extract funds from their supporters. They're not the only group like this, and they exist on both sides of the political spectrum. Must be nice.
But back to Chuck Heston. I like some of his apocalyptic SF work better than his epic stuff. Soylent Green comes to mind...his scenes with Edgar G Robinson are pretty darn good.