Balance of Power

    "That no license to hunt deer rests on the license to hunt down women and children.

    "That no freedom in our Bill of Rights frees criminals and terrorists to turn those rights against us . . ."

    All at once the gallery was standing, with the Democrats launching a wave of applause and cheers that seemed as though it would not stop. Awkwardly, the Republicans rose as well, most, like Fasano, applauding tepidly. Paul Harshman, Palmer observed, stood with folded arms.

    "The SSA," Cassie murmured to Chad, "will have to go all out."

* * *

    As the applause continued, Charles Dane went to his wet bar and poured himself a bourbon and water. "Universal background checks," he said to Fell and Campton. "That's where this is headed."

    Fell shook her head. "Too big a stretch. He must know he'll never pass it."

    Dane took his first sip of bourbon. "Do you?"

    Under "existing law," Kilcannon called out through the applause, criminals are prohibited from buying guns. But forty percent of gun purchases are made through private sellers—often at gun shows—whom "existing law" does not require to run background checks to see if the buyer is prohibited.

"Existing law," in short, is an honor code for criminals . . .

Dane emitted a short laugh.

    For too long, Kilcannon continued, the debate about guns has been a matter of faith and fear

, driven by a fanatic few who just can't sleep at night unless they feel that someone, somewhere is out to get them. Kilcannon paused again, and then said in a clear, commanding voice, No longer.

    No longer should this fanatic few be allowed to claim that commonsense laws to prevent criminals from buying weapons are the first step to confiscation by a tyrannical government of their imagining.

    No longer should they be heard to say that our only defense against criminals is to buy more guns, until America is an armed camp of the lawless and the fearful, and the body count which follows dwarfs the carnage we know today . . .

    His listeners rose yet again. "We need Democrats," Dane instructed Carla Fell. "That's the only way to ensure that no president, Republican or Democrat, feels free to make this kind of speech again."

    As the applause died down, Kilcannon's voice became soft with scorn. The same magazine that directed John Bowden to his Lexington P-2 told its readers that our only means of crime prevention is "meeting evil force with proven protection" through "armed self-defense for all peaceful Americans." If only Mae Morgan had been quicker on the draw, I suppose this means, her son Louis would not be, effectively, an orphan.

    On the screen, Louis Morgan appeared in close-up, listening with stolid grief. Beside him, Lara Kilcannon touched his arm.

    "No shame," Bill Campton said.

    All of us,

Kilcannon called out, owe Louis Morgan better.

    Once more, the listeners rose, applauding. "That's the fourteenth standing ovation," Carla Fell reported.

* * *

"Eighty-three percent," Kit Pace said in wonder.

    With deep satisfaction, Clayton smiled. "A dinner at D C Coast says he hits eighty-five."

    "You're on. For eighty-five, I'd gladly throw in a bottle of wine."

    Some will say, the President said softly, that this is personal to me.