Scenes from a Preternatural Presidency -- 2. Bullet Points (A)
2. Bullet Points
AMONG things I aimed to do differently was keeping campaign promises, and top of the list were three constitutional amendments, one adding upholding the Medicine Wolf Accords to all federal oaths of office, one guaranteeing equal rights for preternaturals, and one ditto women. The proposed wordings had been public for a while, so I had no hesitation in using my independent-and-allied votes, with the profound shock affecting the very headless-galline main party representatives still serving, to whack them all through Congress and onto the Archivist to pass to State legislatures for swift ratification, please. But there was also SAGE with the strong post-Parkland pressure for some real gun control, about which Adam and Jesse had powerful feelings, so as the true scale of my electoral victory sank in - and I got to see the detailed analyses of demographics - my first hard choice was whether to risk its authority so swiftly … except it was a no-brainer. After a great deal of talking to too many people I agreed simple was good, so the fourth constitutional amendment on which a glassy-eyed Congress and subsequently State legislatures found themselves voting was a definition of “arms” in the Second Amendment that specified single-shot or semi-automatic pistols and rifles, and stringently excluded from private ownership all belt-fed repeaters, pistols or rifles with magazines holding more than twelve slugs, and anything fully automatic, as well as everything bigger than that. It also required federal and state licensing authorities to check a mandated, federally maintained database for criminal records and psychiatric history and legitimised refusals on specified grounds.
There was any amount of violent squawking, but the PACs who usually had influence bounced right off me and independents who didn’t want their money, and the loudest squawks were overwhelmingly from very predictable sources who became even unhappier as they realised they were in a minority and the tide running against them. Thanks to SAGE the NRA was in total disarray, racked by in-fighting and finding its budget very crimped, while I had everyone who actually wanted sane gun control on board, including high percentages of law enforcement, the military, and serious hunters, and intensive work by SAGE and many others, including veterans’ organisations, gave the flat argument that private citizens did not need battlefield weapons wide traction. As there are places where the biggest threats to citizens are in uniform I was also pushing the accountability of those with badges, and highlighting accumulating evidence that bodybuilding culture and steroid use in PDs was significantly linked to overreactive resorts to lethal force, but while welcome to many that wasn’t about any need for automatic fire - quite the opposite. Giving the opening press conference of the campaign for ratification I’d been blunt with a spluttering NRA member who seemed to think anyone was entitled to shoot anything they fancied as often as they wanted without any scrutiny at all.
“You know, sir, I call that complete and pernicious bull. If you’re hunting, and you can’t hit whatever you’re aiming at with twelve shots, go practice some more or give over hunting. No animal deserves you, nor any serious hunter you may be with. And likewise, if you need more shots than that to defend yourself or your family, you should be talking urgently to the police, not playing vigilante roulette. Automatic weapons were a purely military development, driven by increasingly large conscript armies, and their onlypurpose is mass slaughter in full-blown military combat, which we try and avoid these days, and which no private citizen can by definition ever need to inflict. Citizens don’t need F-16s, sir, and they don’t need M-16s either. Period. As to background checks, d’oh! Criminal records are obvious, seeing as they include any previous firearms offences, and so is not giving anyone who is unmedicated paranoid, badly bipolar, or schizophrenic a seriously lethal weapon just because they decide they want one. Ask the murder victims, except oh, you can’t, and you rely on that, sir. Stop it, because it’s killing thousands of citizens every year, and get real.”
Given that the silly number of automatic weapons already out there would not prevent a rush to buy millions more, just in case, I had also pulled a fast one with an Executive Order suspending sales of what would become illegal for six months, backed by massed federal quarantine of stock, while conceding amid howls that if the amendment was ratified a compulsory buyback would not be enforceable, and if it wasn’t compensation would be in order.
“Private citizens who already own automatic weapons and do not do anything illegal with them will not be an urgent problem,” I told the Fox-gal who pushed me on it, “and PDs have more than enough else to do. But if the amendment is ratified, and you come to police or federal attention with your newly unconstitutional spray-gun, yeah, you’ll lose it, very probably without compensation and certainly so if laws have been broken. And no, manufacturers will not be compensated for loss of a market they should never have been willing to supply. It’s no-one’s bread-and-butter, just a few big companies’ jam, even counting bullets, and the army’s hardly gonna stop buying their stuff. It’s just that no-one else will be able to, at least without risking serious jail-time.”
The six-month limit on the Executive Order was to soothe unhappy judges, and to back that up I very visibly pushed all the constitutional amendments with State legislatures. My slate independents were present everywhere, public pressure was high on both mass and social media, with Jesse and Andrea juggling a lot of carefully targeted celebrity endorsements, the first two amendments were more-or-less done deals, given the election figures, and Skuffles and I did a lot of unexpected visiting, so despite many raised hackles and some screaming opposition admitting the gun-control amendment to the floors of state chambers was a path of least resistance. Once it was there in the first dozen or so states I invited a bunch of their representatives and senators, with heavy media, to see Adam and I use an army range, demonstrating exactly what the point was. We could both put ten rounds from a semi-auto Glock 22 into one bulls-eye in barely three seconds, or into ten in less than five, Jesse wasn’t much slower, and all those targets, if human, would have been left seriously dead. Adam could also show that emptying an M-16 into one didn’t just leave the target dead, it shredded it completely before chewing into the backstop.
“In any civilian situation it’s built-in overkill”, Adam told them, “and as anyone who’s actually had to use automatic fire against massed human beings knows absolutely, gut, heart, and head, it’s a hellish burden. And if anyone’s idiot enough to say ‘hunting’, ask them how much of the carcase they’re aiming to eat, because an M-16 on auto won’t give you venison roasts or steaks, it’ll give you deer nuggets with skin and bones mashed in. Don’t listen to the bull the NRA and others are spouting, just ask any vet who’s seen real action - we’ve actually used these weapons in anger, and we know they are not any kind of toy, nor any kind of right. Mercy tells me that in old castles the places where they could drop boiling oil on people were called murder-holes, and every modern automatic weapon is a murder-hole, no matter who owns it.”
I joined him to reiterate that I’d beaten attacks by humans, wolves, vamps, the River Devil, Guayota, Cantrip, a Gray Lord, and more vamps without needing automatic fire, and Jesse joined us both to pick up post-Parkland and the pure rage of kiddos and ex-kiddos at requiring major campus security to try to ensure they weren’t randomly massacred, not that that threat would go away, even if. She was, excuse her, at as much risk as anyone, and more than most, as Dan and the Joes plus ever so many frazzled Secret Service agents could testify, if I allowed them to, and she had licenses to carry, concealed or otherwise, in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, but did anyone hear her saying she needed military firepower? Or any of her Secret Service agents?
“I tell you all, nothing anyone opposed to this is saying about self-defence rings true to anyone I’ve talked to who actually has permanent bodyguards. Nor to the bodyguards. Nor to anyone military I know, whether that’s Dad, Mr Christiansen and his crew, other vets, military staffers, or the Chair of the Joint Chiefs. What all the antis are saying, if it’s any more than dogmatically claiming a supposed right to be lethally irresponsible, is, “But, but, but, it might be a nut for which I really need a sledgehammer”, and no, it really mightn’t - nuts don’t come that way, even human ones, and if they did you stillshouldn’t be willing to risk the collateral damage. But don’t just take my word for it - reach out on social media, and see what other kids think, because the chances are high yours are going to be talking to you hard about this, and soon. State legislators, check your inboxes and think about the fact that your jobs all depend on being re-elected. President She Doesn’t Only Fix Cars and SAGE have given us the best chance at real reform we’ve ever had, and your kiddos are watching you like hawks because if you squander it we will not be forgiving.”
Between us we rang all sorts of bells and pushed any number of buttons, and while there were a diehard minority who could no more be argued with than any set of bigots, the pressure really was on and legislators everywhere felt it keenly. Jesse, Sally, and Jenna were, with the post-Parkland organisations and SAGE, orchestrating truly intense email and social media campaigns that kept inboxes heavily tilted to ‘do it, people’, and the national mood was tipping in favour of, a frequent joke, biting the bullet. Fae were marginal on this one, but made it known they were rationally persuaded, other preternaturals were solidly with me, in conviction or prudence, and among humans it was overwhelmingly younger citizens, voting or not, and veterans who seriously agreed with Adam, who were the real drivers, and with their help we swung ethnic, religious, and urban votes everywhere, including the Bible Belt, meaning all state legislators got a sustained tsunami of constituency pressure. Quite a few of my surprised analysts thought I had half-persuaded people that being coyote sneaky was a better idea than pure military escalation, which was interesting, while many youngsters had fallen out of love with guns altogether, and as Andrea and Jesse both agreed I tended to think they had a point. But whatever it was, it was working.
I’d chased all the bills through Congress in early March, just before Jesse turned eighteen, the Federal Archivist was prompt, and the opposition became distinctly shriller when between April and June more than twenty very geographically and demographically various states ratified everything, including gun control. I don’t think the antis had quite believed a constitutional ban was possible in their version of America, and as it became ever more likely, and imminent, the level of belligerence rose - which I had assumed would happen. Words alone were let pass unless they crossed into direct and overt incitement, but deeds were not, lawful protest being fine but by definition not unlawful. The FBI, ATF, and HSA were in close touch with concerned PDs everywhere, governors used National Guards to keep demonstrations peaceful, and Farouts made preternatural resources available if truly needed. A fair amount of the belligerence being from blowhards and bullies who’d never actually been called on their behaviour, a great deal of trouble was effectively scotched at local level, but there were also the diehards and wannabe diehards, hardcore survivalists and radical anarchists, usually right but sometimes left, and they had some vocal support among the badly bruised rumps of the main parties, mostly dimmer Anglo conservatives of all classes for whom one or more of young, female, First Person, and coyote was a step too far - and a part of my planning that no-one much liked was as lawfully as may be to induce those up to armed demonstrating to do so very concentratedly.
It produced a split that amused me (and Adam when I told him) in the committee I’d created to oversee the necessary co-ordination, because the police always preferred individual confrontation, with uniforms in the majority, while the military understood the advantage of bunched targets, if not why I wanted it, and both were taken aback by my being in a bullish mood - but then I did know why I wanted it, and had banked the necessary conversations.
“Enough already, people. What happens when as many of these more extreme protestors as possible are in one place is my business. Yours is getting them there, wherever it may be, and the only parameter I insist on is within the Mississippi or Colorado Basins. Go figure.” My smile kept them quiet. “Now, about such things as, oh, agents provocateurs and asking about turbulent priests, I have very mixed feelings, rightly, but as I also share the FBI’s and many PDs’ strong feelings about what is probably going to amount, on paper, to an armed rebellion, and have a duty to all the law-abiding citizens who support my policies, I believe I can compromise. So as these heavily armed extreme protesters seem to have some problems organising themselves, perhaps you could collectively lend them a quiet hand to get their act together.”
FBI Executive Director Westfield gave me a look, but I’d seconded him to do exactly that and keep me honest.
“And where would you like them to gather, Ms President ? Ideally.”
“Ideally, ED, Sacajawea SP. From their point of view, it has all sorts of symbolism going for it, from the Secret Service’s it is the other side of the Columbia, and from Pasco PD’s it’s very contained.”
“Huh.” He thought about it. “If this happened, would you be expecting casualties, Ms President ?”
“I can’t rule them out, ED, but any deaths will be self-inflicted. I want the worst of them all together because, once the Constitutional Amendment has been ratified, they are going to need disarming, and doing that bloodlessly will be way easier if they’re in a job lot. Sacajawea SP would be very helpful because on home turf my magical options will be greater.”
“And if it hasn’t been ratified by the time any assembly happens, Ma’am ?”
“At Sacajawea SP they could still be bloodlessly disarmed, ED. We’d just have to give the guns back afterward, unless there was legal reason not to, of course. If they did all come to Pasco, how many would make sure they had Washington licenses, do you suppose ? Or for states they transited ? But that’s very much Plan B.”
His eyebrows were up. “And no bad one, Ma’am, if you really can do the bloodless bit.”
“Not a problem, ED. Guns are trickier than swords, which you can just heat up until people drop them, so it takes more raw power, which is why options are good. There’ll be some fairly summary executive justice, but no injustice, at least from me.”
He thought about it some more, while others croggled, but eventually nodded.
“Alright, Ma’am. Hoover gave more than me a powerful aversion to anything that smacks of COINTELPRO, but you aren’t asking us to disinform or discredit, only to … push a particular choice of venue. Given the wider picture, I can live with that.”
His agreement mattered, and I thanked him sincerely, but stayed very cagey about what exactly I had in mind, magic not being official business, and sat back to watch what happened. The diehardest and least sane opposition to any and all gun control was strongest in Florida, Texas, and bits of the more mountainous or desert West, and as I was a westerner too, and spent half my time in Kennewick, there was a natural pull away from DC. I did mention once or twice to the media that given the poll numbers I was seeing the antis would need a huge showing to make me rethink anything, and as the clear drop in my approval ratings was averaging about five points, which left them in the low 90s, that line got widespread support. But quite how the very disparate protesting groups came to decide, at a beer-fuelled convention in Texas, that a motorised and very heavily armed cavalcade snaking through the Bible Belt and up the West Coast before heading for the Tri-Cities and an enormous rally in Sacajawea SP was a good idea I took care not to ask, while rubbing my hands. I also didn’t ask why no-one was wondering about magical threat environments, and if the antis notably failed to think of that for themselves, despite all the available evidence, that was going to be their bad.