Mr. Heston had recently given a speech at the National Press Club in Washington in which, as Mr. Buckley tells us, he said "not only that he was proud to defend the Second Amendment, but that he thought it the most important of any of the rights

guaranteed under the Constitution." Why? Actually, Mr. Heston concedes, the amendments "are all of equal importance. [But] the Second Amendment is the only one equipped to protect and defend the others." A vivid conversation between these two old friends that ranges from the use of guns in resisting tyranny, to the woman needing protection when she comes home late at night from her cleaning job, to this, from Mr. Heston's experience directing a play in China: "Several of my actors were in Tiananmen Square, and ... one of the survivors said, 'You know, as a student of your Constitution and your Bill of Rights, of course freedom of speech is crucial. Freedom of speech doesn't help you much if you're standing in front of a tank.'" WFB: "No. That's eloquently correct. As a matter of fact, not even a pistol would help you very much."

CH: "No, not even a pistol. Indeed. A grenade launcher might do the trick."