Move To Fire
A family's tragedy, a lone attorney, and a teenager's victory over a corrupt gunmaker
By
Michael W. Harkins
Move To Fire
A family's tragedy, a lone attorney, and a teenager's victory over a corrupt gunmaker
By
Michael W. Harkins
Move to Fire
The book Publishers Weekly described as "a taut legal thriller"
Available from online and bookstore retailers everywhere.
Soon to be a feature film
Move to Fire
The story that attracted the world's attention as a teenager attempted to buy the assets of a bankrupt company and its 20,000 remaining guns identical to the defective gun that paralyzed him for life when he was seven years old.
Discover Move To Fire
No parents should ever experience the traumatic, lifetime effects of their child being shot, especially when the bullet is from a defective gun made by a company with a history of bystanders and users being maimed and killed by its poorly made products.
When seven year-old son Brandon Maxfield was accidentally shot and seriously wounded by a defectively designed handgun, all his mother Sue prayed for was that he live. Comatose, on a ventilator in intensive care, the top of his spine shattered, she whispered into his tiny ear that If he woke up, she promised to be his arms and legs for the rest of his life.
Brandon not only lived, permanently paralyzed from the neck down, ten years after the shooting he and a lone, determined attorney became the focus of national, then international news when Brandon secured a first of its kind, twenty-five million dollar product liability judgment against the gun maker. When the company and its owner declared bankruptcy to avoid paying the judgment, and schemed to secretly resurrect the company, Brandon and his attorney created a plan to bid for the company’s remaining assets in a bankruptcy auction and destroy its inventory of defective guns so that, as Brandon himself explained, no kid ever had to go through what he went through.
Move To Fire follows Brandon’s and his family’s life before and after the accident, and explores the broader community and societal costs of a tragic accidental shooting. It also details the extent of the gun maker’s efforts to hide millions of dollars made from handguns so poorly manufactured, and of such inferior materials, the guns became known to law enforcement as crime guns, junk guns and, infamously, Saturday night specials.
Move To Fire’s compelling narrative illuminates events that captivated media outlets and people around the world. It is a cautionary tale, to be studied as gun manufacturing surges unregulated and exempt from product safety oversight, ghost guns proliferate, and already fragile firearm regulations are continually weakened even as firearm-related incidents remain the leading cause of children’s deaths.
About author Michael W. Harkins
Michael W. Harkins is a Northern California author, occasional writing instructor, designer, and creative consultant. Besides his three other books, his work has appeared in Real Simple magazine, Thrice Fiction magazine, featured on National Public Radio, and during his almost 50 year career he has worked with clients in every industry, from medical to finance, and with many recording and performance artists including Prince, Journey, Bruce Springsteen, and Michael Jackson. He is a longtime volunteer with several nonprofit organizations, and a veteran of the elite 82nd Airborne Division.
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