Brandon has met more than a few admirers over the years. Here, he and attorney Richard Ruggieri talk with then SF mayor, now Calif Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (who is now running for governor) at 2005 event honoring Brandon (photo courtesy Greg Habiby).
Category Archives: guns
Newest Amazon review
I’m grateful for all of these.
Thanks so much Martha Seuss: “I could not put this book down! This is an amazing story of perseverance. It leads you down a series of paths through the court system, depositions, and the heart wrenching true tale of Brandon Maxfield’s story of being on the wrong end of a defective Saturday Night Special. It was intriguing, emotional, and educational. I loved it!”
Publishers Weekly starred review
Here’s the Publishers Weekly starred review, which included this: “Harkins crafts a taut legal drama reminiscent of Jonathan Harr’s A Civil Action…” It also displays the first version’s white cover, so if you’re checking it out don’t be confused, it’s the same book (click here for the complete review)
The story’s reach
In the days leading up to the auction, Brandon’s case received amazing publicity: 11 countries, over 300 news reports and articles.
The second excerpt
Here’s your second Move To Fire excerpt, lightly edited. A bit long, also from the book’s foreword, but this will give you all an insight you almost certainly didn’t have about what it means to have certain guns on the streets:
“…[Move To Fire] corrects misconceptions about what happened to a little boy… why it happened, and recounts how the unwavering work of one man resulted in a measure of justice for a family, and a society, unjustly wounded by the status quo.
But underlying it all is something so crucially relevant yet widely unknown that without it there would be no Move To Fire story.
…consumer products are regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission… to protect the public against unreasonable risks of injuries and deaths associated with consumer products.
But not if that consumer product is a gun…
…there have been and are defective guns that can fire without the trigger being touched, but they cannot be recalled or taken off the market except by the manufacturer… And no government entity can force a gun manufacturer to recall or remove all those models.
So, the worst extension of all this is that an unethical gun manufacturer could choose to create and sell a gun it knew to be defective, and, still, no entity could stop that from happening.
That happened.”
Move To Fire excerpts — here’s the first
I’ve been thinking that posting some short selections from Move To Fire might be both interesting and enticing (I figure you’ll let me know…). I’ll do this every week or so for, well, at least a while. Hope you enjoy or are enticed to find out more. Seems logical to start at the start, so here’s the first from Move To Fire’s Foreword:
“Move To Fire is an only-in-America story. The people in it are all of us — parents, kids, business people, lawyers, good people, and bad people. There are guns, an accidental shooting, and a lawsuit. It’s an American trifecta. It’s out best, our worst, and exposes how little we may actually know about things for which we voice our opinions, sometimes voiced at the top or our lungs.”
From “Move To Fire – A family’s tragedy, a lone attorney, and a teenager’s victory over a corrupt gunmaker,” available from Amazon, Apple’s iStore, and Barnes & Noble Online.
The release of Move To Fire
My book is now available. I am proud of the work, still marvel at the story, and I’m grateful to the people who allowed me to share this with everyone:
Click here for Move To Fire on Amazon.
It’s a slow rollout, and it may be buried under the plethora of books heavily promoted as gifts for the holidays, but, hell, it took almost eleven years to get it here, so a slow rollout, while occasionally frustrating, almost seems appropriate. I’ll add more bookseller links as distribution expands, and I’ll also use this site to share much about this next phase of the process: reviews, reactions, promo and publicity, etc.
Due to the subject matter — lawyers, guns, and money — I’ll heavily moderate all posts and comments. I’ll allow the full range of viewpoints, but I will also not allow the kind of base, crude, and aberrant type of comments that are always shared (yep, always) by those who have an established, unwavering position on guns, gun violence, gun regulation, and the Second Amendment. The vitriol written by trolls from the safety of their hovels can be repugnant in ways decent folk can’t imagine, as is documented in Move To Fire.
I also look forward to hearing from those who want to explore fact vs myth, accuracy vs rumor, and… you get the point, I’m sure.
Talk to me, tell your friends about this, and no matter what side of America’s guns issue you’re on, recommend this book to every woman, man, and young adult. Obviously, I have to do what I can to succeed commercially, but I have always felt that the Move To Fire story will assist people in their efforts, in OUR efforts, to establish a DMZ of reason and awareness as we work toward a solution to America’s gun problem… because there IS a problem, and one of Move To Fire’s attributes is the underlying lessons of how to find solutions and create change.
Move To Fire – A family’s tragedy, a lone attorney, and a teenager’s victory over a corrupt gunmaker.