Balance of Power

Addendum

It is six months since I completed and edited BALANCE of Power, and fiction and reality have merged in an uncanny way.

In January 2003, survivors of the victims of the Washington, D.C., sniper filed suit against, among others, the manufacturer who noted the adaptability of the weapon for sniper-type activity, and the dealer from whom a juvenile and a man with a record of domestic violence somehow acquired a weapon. In March—following the lead of a majority of the House of Representatives—fifty-two Senators (forty-three Republicans and nine Democrats) introduced a bill that would immunize manufacturers, dealers, and the National Rifle Association from all such suits. As anticipated in my novel, the bill swiftly passed the House, and is now pending in the Senate.

The only material difference from the scenario presented in Balance of Power is that this legislation is supported, rather than opposed, by the current administration. But, as in the novel, its fate rests with a handful of swing Democrats and Republican moderates in the Senate—who, because the President will sign such a bill, must join with enough Senators to reach the forty-one required to sustain a filibuster.

As in Balance of Power, the gun lobby has deployed its full resources, hiring a large team of lobbyists, generating phone calls and letters to Senate offices, and suggesting to undecided Senators that the intensity of their opposition in the next election may turn on this vote. The resulting legislative battle has been as tough as my narrative anticipated. In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I know this first hand; I have been intimately involved in this conflict, meeting with Senators to urge support for a filibuster, and strategizing with opponents of the bill. By the time this novel appears in mid-October, the outcome may well be decided.

—July 7, 2003