It gained widespread popularity following the May 2000 National Rifle Association convention when actor and then-president of the NRA, Charlton Heston, used the phrase to conclude a speech.
Wilensky reports that the bumper stickers were at that time sold reading "I Will Give Up My Gun When They Peel My Cold Dead Fingers From Around It."
In the 1997 film Men in Black, a farmer named Edgar threatens a recently landed evil alien with a shotgun.
A small item on the page claimed: "Grave robbers pry valuable rifle from Charlton Heston's cold, dead hands".
[9] The 2012 update Mann vs Machine for the video game Team Fortress 2 contains a parody of the phrase as one of the Soldier character responses: "You can have this when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.