For­mer Con­gress­man Steve Israel takes you behind the scenes of the gun debate in Wash­ing­ton in this ​“pleas­ing­ly wicked” indict­ment of the state of Amer­i­can pol­i­tics. May­or Michael Rodriguez starts a nation­al cam­paign to ban hand­guns, Otis Cogsworth, the wealthy chair­man and CEO of Cogsworth Inter­na­tion­al Arms wor­ries about the effects on his com­pa­ny. In response, he and lob­by­ist Sun­ny McCarthy con­vince an Arkansas con­gress­man to intro­duce fed­er­al leg­is­la­tion man­dat­ing that every Amer­i­can must own a firearm. 

Asabogue’s May­or Lois Lei­bowitz pass­es an ordi­nance to ban guns in the town — and Cogsworth retal­i­ates by orches­trat­ing a recall elec­tion in the small vil­lage on Long Island. Otis brings in the big guns of Amer­i­can pol­i­tics to defeat Lois: polit­i­cal con­sul­tants, Super PACs, and celebri­ties and soon bucol­ic Asabogue becomes a tin­der­box. Mean­while, Wash­ing­ton politi­cians in both par­ties are caught between a mighty gun lob­by whose sup­port they need for reelec­tion and the absur­di­ty of requir­ing that every Amer­i­can with waivers for chil­dren under age four car­ry a gun.