Balance of Power

    'It wasn't flu . . .'

    Lara smiled up at him. 'Diapers,' she informed her husband, 'are the acid test of character. Even for a President.'

Afterword and Acknowledgments

Gun violence in America is a subject of daunting complexity, requiring a knowledge of its political, governmental, legal, medical, public health, social, and cultural dimensions. I should start by acknowledging that I approached this undertaking with a distinct point of view: I am a strong advocate of common-sense measures to curb gun violence. This position is buttressed by my presence on the boards of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Family Violence Prevention Fund. I am also concerned about the influence of special interest money in politics, which in part accounts for my current service on the board of Common Cause, the public interest lobby. Each of these affiliations has shaped my thinking, and stimulated my concern, with respect to the causes and the toll of gun violence in America. By no means am I a dispassionate, or neutral, observer.

    That said, the enormous amount of research required by this novel informed and complicated my view of these subjects in countless ways. To write Balance of Power, I tried to probe every aspect of this problem and every point of view. So I am deeply indebted to all those who helped me to achieve the knowledge base necessary to write this book.

    I must also make it clear that they represent disparate and often conflicting experiences and perspectives, and that their help does not constitute an endorsement of this book, let alone of any particular opinion expressed herein. As always, the buck stops with me, and any disagreements or hostility engendered by this novel should be directed at me alone.

    I am, of course, a fiction writer, and this is a work of imagination. Nonetheless, I have striven for accuracy throughout the book, in ways both large and small, and the story is firmly rooted in the reality of our current political environment. For example, a bill immunizing the gun industry in a manner similar to that portrayed in this novel was pending in the last Congress, and its proponents claimed two hundred twentyeight sponsors in the House of Representatives, a majority. In the Senate about to be convened, the control has now returned to the Republicans; it is quite possible that a bill will be introduced and voted on by both houses before this book is published. Readers should also know that the general outline—though not all of the details, and certainly not the blackmail of a President—of the problems faced by George Callister and Lexington Arms in settling with Kerry Kilcannon were faced by Smith & Wesson when it entered into a tentative settlement in 2000 with the Clinton Administration which never came to fruition. And the basis and legal theories of the Costello lawsuit reflect, to a considerable degree, the litigation involving the shootings in the 101 California tragedy in San Francisco—including the nature of the weapon, the mode of advertising, and the kind of harm inflicted—and the 'flooding' issue appears in lawsuits filed against the gun industry by several California cities.

    Finally, the chapter in which Kerry Kilcannon visits a gun show in Las Vegas is rooted in my own personal observations of such a show. Every description in that chapter is derived from that experience. The only alterations are that I took the bumper-sticker aspersions cast on other public figures and substituted the Kilcannons; modeled the 'Lexington P-2' and 'Eagle's Claw' bullet after other, virtually identical, weapons; and imported a target practice cutout of former President and Mrs. Clinton from a gun store in New Hampshire, replacing the Clintons with Kerry and Lara Kilcannon.

    With that, I wish to thank all those who helped.

    The Senate is an institution unto itself, and its workings and procedures are as intricate as they are, to me, fascinating. I am deeply indebted to the following current or former members of that body: Barbara Boxer, William Cohen, John Edwards, Edward Kennedy, John McCain, and, in particular, Bob Dole, whose advice has been invaluable for three books now. Others, including current and former Senate staffers, helped with respect to both politics and process: Melody Barnes, Mark Busey, Bruce Cohen, Meredith McGehee, Ed Pagano, Martin Paone, Robin Toone, and Bob Tyrer. Special thanks to former Senate Parliamentarian Bob Dove, who not only walked me through the process, but was kind enough to review the manuscript.

    I was lucky to have advice from several scholars, journalists, and public officials and writers who have studied the issue from various perspectives: Ron Brownstein, Dr. Philip Cook, Morris Dees, Dr. Glen Pierce, Dr. Stephen Teret, Dr. Jay Wachtel, and, especially, Matt Bai and Susan Ginsberg. Similarly, I was schooled in the medical aspects of gun violence—from surgery to the public health aspects—by Dr. Beth Kaplan, Dr. Arthur Kellerman, Dr. Robert Liner, Dr. Robert Mackersie, Dr. Irene Marquez-Biggs, Sean Reynolds, Dr. H. William Taeusch, and, in particular, Dr. Margaret Knudson and Dr. William Schwab.

    A number of current or former employees of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms helped me with the often complicated regulatory environment surrounding guns, as well as with various investigative methods: Dale Armstrong, Terry Austin, Tara Bedford, Tom Cannon, John D'Angelo, Fanny Hasselbacher, Ed Owen, Jack Patterson, and John Torres. Many thanks to all.

    Several talented people discussed with me the subject of gun politics at the Presidential level, as well as past legislative and regulatory efforts to reduce gun violence, including Harold Ickes, Bruce Reed, and Max Stier. Special thanks to Bruce Lindsey and Cheryl Mills, not only for their advice but for reviewing all or part of the manuscript, and to President Bill Clinton for his observations about the politics of guns. Still others filled me in on various aspects of gun politics: Rich Bond, Carter Eskew, Peter Fenn, Mandy Grunwald, Ron Kaufman, Joel Klein, Peter Knight, Celinda Lake, Joe Lockhart, Mike McCurry, Bill McInturff, Scott Reed, Don Simon, Tom Strickland, and Michael Terris.

    The jurisprudence of gun lawsuits and the Second Amendment was also an important subject. I read every significant legal decision regarding the Second Amendment and lawsuits against gun companies, as well as a number of scholarly articles on these subjects. I am grateful to the following legal experts for their help: Fred Baron, Arthur Bryant, Leah Castella, Owen Clements, John Coale, Leslie Landau, Linda Lipson, and Dennis Henigan. Thanks as well to Victor Schwartz and James Wooten for their important observations regarding gun lawsuits and tort reform.

    I was fortunate to have the advice of a number of prominent advocates of gun safety. I begin with my current and former colleagues at the Brady Campaign: Mike Barnes, Ellen Moran, and Tony Orza. I learned much from the Web site for the Brady Campaign (www.bradycampaign.org; www.bradycenter.org) and that of its grassroots affiliate, the Million Mom March (www.millionmommarch.com). I am also grateful to the following members of Americans for Gun Safety: Jon Cowan, Jim Kessler, Matthew Bennett, Michael Harrington, Lisa Kimbrough, and Meghan Sherman. Finally, I am deeply grateful to two women who, having lost loved ones to gun violence, speak to this tragedy as advocates in the most important way possible: Mary Leigh Blek and Carole Kingsley.

    I was not as fortunate with gun rights advocates. My calls and letters requesting time with the principal officers of the National Rifle Association went unanswered; apparently, and perhaps understandably, they did not wish to meet with a novelist affiliated with the Brady Campaign. Nonetheless, that choice was theirs, and I regret being unable to present their thoughts. I did have off-the-record talks with two persons affiliated with the NRA, and immersed myself in NRA publications. Thus the SSA's public rhetoric and positions on gun rights closely reflects that of the NRA. In particular, the article I attributed to the SSA magazine in Chapter Two of Part One includes quotations from or close paraphrases of an actual, much longer article in the NRA magazine America's First Freedom. Similarly, Charles Dane's speech at the Washington Monument includes brief passages from two speeches given by Charlton Heston, then the President of the NRA, and Wayne La Pierre, its executive director. I am very grateful to Beth Lavach, who has extensive experience in Congressional relations on behalf of the gun industry, for her advice on legislative matters. Also of great assistance were two gun rights advocates whose efforts at compromise sometimes put them in conflict with the NRA, Richard Feldman and Robert Ricker.

    One of the interesting benefits of my research is that I came away with some real sympathy for the executives of gun companies, many of whom value guns for their quality and craftsmanship. These executives face a difficult dilemma, caught as they are between gun safety advocates and the lawyers who represent them, on the one side, and the NRA, which—in addition to its dominant presence in Washington, D.C.—reaches many of their customers.