I want to begin the evening with a Cole Porter tune. No, no one needs to rush for the doors. I won't be singing -- merely reciting the lyrics.

Times have changed, the music giant wrote in 1934. And we've often re-wound the clock since the Puritans got a shock when they landed on Plymouth Rock.

Good authors who once knew better words now only use four-letter words, writing prose. Anything goes.

The world has gone mad today. And good is bad today. And black is white ... and day is night today.

Today, for too many Americans, good is bad. Today, day is night. And today, if ANYTHING goes, EVERYTHING goes.

In the battle to regain lost rights, the world has gone mad today. In the fight to retain our most fundamental constitutional liberties, I needn't tell you so, ... anything goes. And if ANYTHING goes, EVERYTHING goes.

Consider the words of a prominent gun ban advocate in California:

"Anything -- that reduces gun violence -- is a good thing."

Anything?

This person -- and others -- see no obstacle to laws which lead to confiscation of private property -- as long as the property is firearms. They see no problem suspending Fourth Amendment rights -- as long as the usual suspects are law-abiding citizens who -- eek -- own guns ... and who -- eek -- actually shoot them at paper targets hanging in the breeze at authorized shooting ranges.

The Anything Goes Lobby tells us they have a problem with violence. But they are not alone. American gun owners have a problem with violence, too.

First, we have a political problem with violence. Every time a criminal strikes, it is almost always traceable to a criminal justice system that failed to take action early -- or a gun control law which failed miserably. Do we tackle the tough work of truth in sentencing? Recently we have.

But never -- never -- never do we see the press and the pundits hold the gun control lobby -- the Anything Goes Lobby -- responsible for the failure of their schemes. Instead, we hear a call for more ineffective laws -- and more ... and more -- until we arrive ... in Chicago, where handguns are banned and criminals win.

... or until we arrive ... in Washington, D.C., where armed self-defense has been a crime for nearly 20 years.

That's the pattern of the last two decades, my friends. That's the legacy of the Anything Goes Lobby. More crime, then more gun control. Then more failure. Then more crime, followed by more control.

Less freedom. Less safety.

But American gun owners not only have a political problem with violence. We have a personal problem with violence. A very personal problem. Violent criminals prey on gun owning Americans, too. And, in response to crime, we do a couple things.

First, we defend ourselves. We use our firearms two point five million times every year -- to stop violence. To thwart criminal attack. To prevent injury. To save lives. And in most cases, no shot is fired.

Second, we act on a commitment we made to overhaul the criminal justice system -- and we are about to begin our eighth enormously successful year in reforming that system.

But no commitment is stronger than our commitment to safeguard the fundamental right of self-defense ... something Charlton Heston calls "America's First Freedom ... the right that is first among equals"... the one right that must prevail ... when everything else fails.

Last year, the nation's leading gun ban advocacy group -- a group called Handgun Control, Incorporated -- solicited bids to re-shape their public image. U.S. News & World Report said the group was shopping for an image make-over two reasons.

First, the group found, Americans dislike Handgun Control Inc.'s middle name -- Control. I'm sure they spent a great deal of money taking a public opinion poll, and the poll revealed the shocking truth. Americans prefer the antonym to Control, ... and that word is Freedom.

Second, the newsmagazine reported, the group confessed in the solicitations that they were losing the PR battle to the group in this country founded on freedom. The NRA.

Beyond the hype and headlines -- lies a larger battle. Beyond the polls and the PR, ... lies a more profound struggle. And while the target is guns, guns are the props on a much, much larger stage. On that stage are two players. CONTROL and FREEDOM.

This visit to the Heartland Institute is a welcome, if brief pause for me. I have spent virtually the entire month of October criss-crossing the state of Washington fighting a ballot initiative you may have read about.

The New York Times is saying "There is no bigger battle." They call the measure "truly historic." I call the measure .... truly revealing ...

Our opponents are intent on winning control no matter the cost to freedom, no matter the cost to safety.

Our opponents are marketing their ballot measure -- wisely -- as a child safety measure. The fine print of this ballot initiative, however, reveals something totally different. Indeed, should this initiative pass, and if safety is improved by any increment -- for any child or any adult -- the improvement could only be accidental.

Indeed, this initiative will achieve no safety, result in no self-defense rights and lead to no privacy rights for hundreds of thousands of lawful citizens.

First, let's find out where we are on gun safety.

NRA has invested more than one-hundred million dollars in gun safety training in the last eight years alone.

NRA trains and supports a network of 50,000 certified instructors working nationwide to provide training to law enforcement and civilians -- training that saves lives.

And NRA has reached ten million American school children with the lifesaving message of the Eddie Eagle Gun Safety Program -- a program so indispensable, it has been adopted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to keep FBI agents and their families safe.

Thus, for decades, the nation's primary care provider for gun safety has been the NRA.

And ....

And ... the facts prove our strategy is the effective gun safety strategy. Fatal gun accidents have reached their lowest levels ever recorded.

Let me repeat that.

Fatal gun accidents have reached their lowest levels ... ever recorded.

Under the Washington initiative, before you can legally possess a handgun you already own, you must travel to a state approved location, pay to undergo hours of state approved instruction, take a government test, undergo a background check, and wait for a government bureaucrat to issue your license -- all to continue to own personal property you have owned, safely and responsibly, all your life.

Fail to comply, and your property will be confiscated, and you will be prosecuted.

Under current Washington law -- even under the Brady Act -- stalking victims and other victims of violence can apply to the sheriff or the chief of police to be exempted from the waiting period. The Washington initiative strips law enforcement of this vital power -- and keeps crime victims defenseless. No self-defense, no excuses, no exceptions.

Well, you say. You dislike guns. You never touch them. Your spouse owns the guns, your spouse stores them responsibly. What's the big deal? Well, my friend, you become the big deal. Under Washington law, even if you don't use the firearm and merely reside with the gun owner -- you must have a license when he (or she) leaves the home. If you don't, you are the one prosecuted.

Here's another interesting wrinkle. When you apply for a license, you waive all rights of confidentiality pertaining to your medical records. According to the language in the initiative itself, your license application constitutes a request to all government agencies and all other health agencies to release your medical records to, quote, an on-line system.

Remember what I said about CONTROL versus FREEDOM?

Remember what I said about firearms being merely the props for a much larger drama?

Oh, and there is much, much more to this -- what did they call it? -- this historic measure. If you compare the total number of instructors with the number of adults who must be licensed and the deadline for licensing -- January 1st, 1999 -- you'll discover that six hundred thousand citizens won't have time to get a license. They cannot escape the penalties. They will be prosecuted. Thus, this initiative -- all for the sake of child safety -- becomes a nightmare for civil rights and the criminal justice system -- a nightmare that will cost far more lives than it can possibly save. Now that is historic...

It's no wonder that the vast majority of law enforcement in Washington state oppose the initiative -- more than eight out of ten police officers, sheriffs and police chiefs.

But the Anything Goes Lobby keeps going, and what keeps them going is a lust for control.

It's not that the ends justify the means. The means are the ends.

This is the new paradigm -- the "anything goes" axiom of American public policy -- and it's up to people like us to urge Americans to reject it, not embrace it.

Because if ANYTHING goes, EVERYTHING goes.

In this frenetic age of too many jobs, too many pressures and too little time, you can't really blame people for embracing the principle that there are no principles...

... That comfort is king ...

... That sacrifice must be sacrificed ...

... That everything must go.

It's as if America was going out of business.

... as if America was having a fire sale!

The boss says move'em out!

Move them all out: your rights. Your national character. Your convictions. Remember! Our stock market is undergoing a correction. Our fortune doesn't lie in principles -- but principle plus interest. Everything else? Well, ... is there anything else?

It's no accident, this state we're in. It's no accident that, as we prepare to enter the next century, we find ourselves unprepared.

We find ...

... our rights are becoming relics ...

... our constitution ... is becoming ... a curio.

We find that America is having a fire sale on civil liberties, because we failed to mind the store.

The hand of God compelled the hand of men to write the Constitution. Two centuries after that divine intervention, men and women have forgotten that in their Constitution, they inherited a miracle. A recent survey by the National Constitution Center proves me right, and it proves all of us are in trouble.

Now, there are 100 U.S. Senators. Two for each of the 50 states. I know this is pretty basic, but...

More than half ... of all Americans ... DON'T KNOW THAT.

There's more news. None of it good.

The First Amendment, it appears, now belongs to the news media! But the press didn't steal it. We gave it to them .. Part of America's Fire Sale of civil rights.

Because, you see, virtually no Americans can name all four rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.

The First Amendment guarantees more than just the freedom of the Chicago Tribune editorial page to limit your rights or dictate your lifestyle. The First Amendment also protects your freedom of speech, your freedom of assembly and your freedom of religion.

But if you don't know it, you can't own it. And fully 94% of all Americans haven't a clue .... that what I just described ... is their birthright -- from just one amendment, the First Amendment.

The survey also shares the strong convictions of a handful of people surveyed.

Some people said -- there are no requirements one must meet to be President of the United States.

Perhaps they were thinking of the present occupant of the Oval Office.

Some people told pollsters --- one of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment is: freedom from fear.

I guess that makes nightmares unconstitutional.

Other people told pollsters: the Constitution only protects the rights of lawyers.

All the people who said that ... were lawyers.

Some other people -- these are U.S. Citizens, remember... Some other people told pollsters -- the U.S. Constitution was written in France.

Some said, the first ten amendments to the Constitution are called -- I hope you're ready for this -- The Pledge of Allegiance.

It might have been better for us to have the pledge of allegiance written into the Constitution. It seems many influential citizens want to replace the relics of our nation.

Take our national anthem, for instance. Ted Turner is interested in taking our national anthem and burying it. In Philadelphia, the birthplace of our Constitution, on July Fourth this year, Mr. Turner called for a national referendum to change the national anthem. "The Star-Spangled Banner is a war song," he said.

It's a song about bombs bursting in air.

It's a song about guns.

Is that true, Mr. Turner? Or were the guns just props -- tools used by Americans on a much, much larger stage -- instruments wielded by Americans fighting a much, much larger battle?

During the War of 1812, after the British set fire to the city of Washington, they attacked Baltimore, the nation's third largest seaport.

The U.S. Army retreated to defend Washington. With no standing army to defend her, Baltimore was doomed.

But the CALL went out ... to farms, villages and towns. A call for ordinary people to turn out ... to assemble -- with their privately owned guns -- to repel the British.

These ordinary people -- farmers, tradesmen, shop owners -- stopped the British land advance. With privately owned guns.

The British were left with one option. Bombard Fort McHenry with naval artillery.

During this bombardment, a U.S. diplomat was aboard a British ship. He was negotiating the release of U.S. prisoners of war. The prisoners were shackled, held in chains below decks. While the bombs were bursting in the night sky above them, the American prisoners summoned the diplomat.

The asked him a question. Was their flag ... still flying?

He answered them.

The great stone bulwarks of Fort McHenry ... were, somehow, not breached. The tumultuous artillery attack ... was, somehow, endured. Their flag ... was still there.

After leaving the prisoners, the diplomat returned to his stateroom and wrote down a few words to describe that night. Was it a song about guns and war? Or was it a song of courage -- a song of freedom?

That song -- written by a U.S. Diplomat named Francis Scott Key -- was about victory

... a victory won by ordinary people

... exercising America's first freedom.

... the right to keep and bear arms.

... a right guaranteed by an amendment written years before by James Madison, who, that very night,

... was President of the United States

... and utterly powerless to defend his country ...

... without ordinary people ...

... exercising America's first freedom.

The NRA wants to ensure that liberty never dies, not in Washington, D.C., not in Washington state, not here Chicago, and not in the hearts of men and women in America.

The NRA wants to jolt Americans into the sure knowledge that regardless of whether they place one foot in the 21st century -- they must keep the other firmly planted on Concord Bridge.

So, before your neighbor decides, "Anything goes," I have a suggestion.

Before they hold a fire sale on civil liberties, suggest they do something that they probably haven't done in a long time.

Read the Constitution.

When they do, they will learn it was not written by the French. It was not written for lawyers. It was written for one person only. The highest ranking official in our American system of government.

The citizen.

Just before our nation was propelled into world war, a great jurist wrote in 1941 that, when liberty dies, "no constitution, no law, no court can ... do much to help it."

Indeed.

"Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women."

And if it's safety you want -- if it's safety you crave -- you will find it ... not by surrendering your liberty ... but by exercising your liberty.

Thank you.