In 1992, Charlton Heston condemned the Board of Time-Warner for releasing a CD by the rapper Ice-T that included a song called "Cop Killer." In 1998, he assumed the presidency of the National Rifle Association, in part to help restore its public image… which had been damaged by its vigorous opposition to congressional efforts to ban armor-piercing bullets, also known as "cop killers."

Harlon Carter, the National Rifle Association leader who campaigned for an unrestricted individual right to keep and bear arms, was convicted of murder when he was sixteen after shooting a fifteen-year old boy. His conviction was later overturned by a higher court on the grounds that original jury had not been properly instructed on the laws regarding self-defense.³⁴