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a shooting tragedy…’

      Woods interrupted. Annoyance bouncing on his words. ‘That’s every day, don’t forget that. Every day there’s a shooting tragedy, not just the ones that are in the press, Teddy.’

      ‘Apologies, Mr. President, I should’ve worded that better. The problem we’ve got is when we call for stricter controls what happens, as you know, are the pro-gun groups rally their members to fight against new restrictions. They spread fear and uncertainty and donations go up. There are a hell of a lot of senators falling out of these groups’ pockets. The gun groups have bankrolled their campaigns. They’ve got a vice-like grip on half of Capitol Hill.’

      Frustrated, Woods said, ‘Yeah, I know all that, but Walmsley knew all this and he was okay about it before. What’s changed?’

      ‘Pressure, John. That’s what’s changed. He’s even got a few anonymous threats. Those senators don’t have the balls when it comes to standing up to special interest groups. They get intimidated and as a consequence our reforms get undermined.’

      ‘Oh come on, don’t give me that Teddy. You say this every time.’

      ‘You know how high passions run on gun control. This goes right to the heart of our constitution. As a nation, we want to preserve that.’

      ‘And what about preserving lives? And the American people tend to agree. What did the last polls come in at? 85 percent backed our reforms?’

      ‘Oh come on, we haven’t believed what polls have said in a long time. And anyway, even if they were right, you could have a hundred polls saying we got a hundred percent backing. That’s not the problem, Mr. President, and you know that. The problem is the overwhelming sense coming down from Capitol Hill is that you’re trying to overstep your legal authority on these reforms. Plus, the gun control campaign we’ve been running hasn’t helped. Seems like a lot of the Republican senators feel like we’ve demonized them along with the pro-gun groups. It’s a mess. They think the social media campaigns we’ve run have made them look like the criminals. No-one’s going to like that, especially when it looks like it comes from the White House.’

      ‘I don’t get how the hell they can talk about us and our campaign? Have you seen what the lobbyists are doing? They’re blatantly spreading lies about our reforms. Making out that it’ll be a kind of Big Brother atmosphere for gun owners. You talk about a climate of fear? Jesus, nobody’s trying to take away the second amendment here, we’re just trying to stop our children being killed.’

      ‘I know, but when it’s time to vote, they’re going to vote against, and they’ll say they’re just protecting the rule of law and the constitution.’

      ‘Bullshit! I’m trying to protect the American people and they know it, it’s an excuse. This issue totally exemplifies the dysfunctional nature of Congress. Every goddamn time restrictions are proposed, the pro-gun groups tells everyone it’ll make no difference to the number of shootings and massacres and the perpetrator would’ve committed these crimes anyway… But try telling that to the families who’ve lost loved ones. Senator Walmsley needs to get his head out of his ass and see what’s really important.’

      Woods stopped to take a deep breath. It took all of his resolve not to put the Smith and Watson Georgian-style chair through one of the eleven foot high oval windows. Though in truth, he knew he might have a tough time trying – bullet resistant glass had a way of stopping things.

      His temper and this job, sometimes they just didn’t match. Hell, it didn’t even get close. Damn problem was he cared too much. And it wasn’t lost on him that this was something he told Cooper not to do. He actually thought he’d got his temper on something of an even keel, though whether he’d achieved that was an entirely different matter. The Post certainly didn’t think so. As of late, most of the cartoon captions had some kind of reference to his legendary outbursts. Exaggerated, yes. But not altogether untrue. Though he would rather call it passion.

      He pointed his finger at Adleman. Jaw so tight from stress it damn near felt it’d locked. He rubbed the side of his face. ‘You need to give Congress a goddamn message from me. They need to stop fighting me on these gun reforms and start thinking about the families and their communities. And you can also send Walmsley the photos.’

      ‘You can’t do that. It’s not going to help. If anything, it’s going to make it worse.’

      ‘I said, send him the photos… Joan…! Joan! Can you come in here a minute?’

      Woods’s secretary hurried in. Calm. Unruffled. Two qualities that explained why he’d hired her. And two qualities, at moments like this, he wished he had. ‘I want you to send Senator Walmsley the pictures of the kids who were killed at Liberbush Elementary. He needs to see what backing out of the reform means.’

      The side glance from Joan to Alderman didn’t get missed. Woods chewed on the skin of his thumb nail. ‘You got a problem with that, Joan?’

      ‘No, sir.’

      ‘I think you have.’

      ‘No.’

      ‘Tell me honestly. You know I value your opinion.’

      Joan tucked her almost-too-short dyed black hair behind her ear. She glanced at Teddy Adleman who nodded encouragingly.

      ‘Okay, well, I think it’s the wrong thing to do, Mr. President. The rationale rests on the supposition that it’s not the gun that kills a person, it’s the person. And I agree with that sentiment and so do a lot of other people. So sending photos to Senator Walmsley of the babies who were shot and killed, however hideous the injuries, won’t serve any purpose apart from alienating yourself more from the Senate.’

      ‘But I need to show Walmsley and a few other senators exactly what happened on this latest massacre.’

      ‘Mr. President, with due respect they’re intelligent men and I have no doubt they know exactly what happened and how. Seeing the photos won’t make a difference to getting votes for your reform. The people who are going to vote against are pro-gun, not pro-violence. That’s a big difference right there.’

      ‘Then how come the rest of the world are looking at America in bewilderment and wondering why the hell we don’t do something about our gun laws and our predilection for guns?’

      ‘We’re unique in that we have our constitution to uphold.’

      ‘Bullshit… sorry, Joan, but bullshit.’

      ‘There are a lot people who are worried your reforms aren’t going to uphold the second amendment.’

      ‘The second amendment was written in 1791, for God’s sake! People quite rightly were defending their land and their cattle, but they did it with muskets and Kentucky long rifles, not a 516 multicaliber semiautomatic which blows a hole in you the size of a grapefruit. America has to change with the times. Let me give you a couple of figures.’

      Joan looked exasperated, but Woods carried on: ‘Over seventeen thousand children and teens are shot each year. Over three thousand of them die. And if you include adults in that figure then we have a goddamn grand total of over one hundred and ten thousand people shot in this country on average each year. And nearly thirty-three thousand of them die. So come on, Joan, tell me about your precious second amendment now.’

      Joan, red faced and needing the bathroom, held her ground. ‘I could point out that gun ownership in places like Finland and Switzerland are high but they don’t have a problem with their crime rates. And the states here in America with the strongest gun control laws, like California, are the ones with the highest gun-homicide rates. Then conversely you’ve got places like Utah, who have very few gun control laws, but they also have a very low number of gun crime homicides. So truly, I don’t see these reforms will have any bearing.’

      ‘I’m not trying to stop people having guns, but there’s got to be more we can do. More reforms on assault and high caliber weapons, more criminal and mental health background checks,

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