Balance of Power

    It is. It is also personal to the families of Henry Serrano, David Walsh, Laura Blanchard, Mae Morgan, and to the millions of other Americans who have lost a parent, a child, or husband; or who've been maimed or paralyzed, their dreams forever shattered; or who live in fear for themselves and those they love.

    Kerry stood straighter, his voice determined. There is only this difference: I am the President. And I will act . . .

* * *

    Kerry paused again, surveying the faces before him. He felt a kind of transcendence, a calm, unhurried resolve to convey at last the weight of all he knew and felt.

    "And so I've come to the Congress," he continued, "in the name of humanity and common sense, to ask you to act with me.

    "For their part, Americans ask little enough of their elected representatives. Decent health care. Schools that teach. A fair chance to use their talents. Safety from external threats. Protection from random violence . . ."

* * *

"A modest program," Dane said wryly.

    We have all sorts of excuses, Kilcannon went on, beginning with cost, as to why our schools are failing, our health care flawed, our chances in life unequal,

and the world unsafe. But we have no excuse for the death of a Mae Morgan, when saving her life would have cost us next to nothing . . .

    "Will it be 'Mae Morgan's Law,' " Bill Campton wondered aloud. "Or 'Marie's Law'?"

* * *

    "Next to nothing," Kilcannon repeated softly. "Like John Bowden, Mae Morgan's husband was a batterer. Unlike John Bowden, he bought his gun from a licensed dealer after passing a background check.

    "How? Because under 'existing law,' Congress has failed to allocate sufficient money to allow most jurisdictions to enter domestic violence convictions into a computer—in this case, the government of our nation's capital, where the records of Samuel Morgan's spousal abuse languished in a cardboard box . . ."

    With a small smile, Hampton turned to Vic Coletti. "Think we'll be hearing quite as much from Fasano about the virtues of 'existing law'?"

    Coletti looked uncomfortable. "The President's doing what he needs to—reframe the debate. I just hope he doesn't sink my constituents who work at Lexington Arms."

    On the podium, Kilcannon's voice was tinged with scorn. "Where 'existing law' is not riddled with loopholes and exceptions, those who argue for its enforcement have done their best to make it unenforceable.

    "In theory, 'existing law' prevents licensed dealers from selling to those convicted of felonies or violent misdemeanors, spousal abuses, drug offenses, and the adjudicated mentally ill.

    "Under 'existing law,' half the states have entered less than sixty percent of all criminal convictions into their computer systems.

    "Under 'existing law,' thirteen states have never recorded a single domestic violence restraining order.

    "Under 'existing law,' almost no state has automated records of those incarcerated for mental illness.

    "Under 'existing law,' illegal aliens—including Islamic terrorists—can and have bought weapons to use against us."

    Kilcannon paused, and then finished pointedly. "And even though alcohol is a leading cause of gun homicides, under 'existing law' even those convicted of multiple DUIs are allowed to buy a weapon . . ."

    "That was the alcohol lobby," Coletti murmured to Chuck Hampton. "One of their better efforts."

    "And one of our more craven," Hampton replied.

    " 'Existing law,' " Kilcannon said succinctly, "exists in defiance of common sense."

* * *

"I don't need this," Cassie Rollins whispered to Chad Palmer.

Palmer suppressed a smile. "Does Fasano?" he whispered back.

    Above them, Kilcannon seemed to be leaning forward, as though propelled by his own momentum. "Common sense," he told the Congress, "requires a law which keeps guns away from those who pose a threat to innocent lives.

    "This is what I propose:

    "A background check on every transfer of every gun. It makes no sense to bar the dangerous and deranged from buying weapons, and then make sure that they can buy one.

    "A federally funded system for computerized background checks, effective in all fifty states. It makes no sense to bar violent felons from buying weapons if we don't know who they are.

    "A law requiring that we retain the records of all background checks. It makes no sense that law enforcement could trace the purchase of fertilizer to Timothy McVeigh, but not the purchase of a weapon."