Josh knocked on Sam's open office door before stepping
inside. "You wanted to talk about something?"

Sam nodded as he motioned for Lyman to close the door.
"Yeah. I just came from Toby's office."

Josh sat down wearily in one of the chairs. "And?"

Sam stood and walked around his desk. "I'm taking your
place on the gun safety act,"he replied as he sat down
on the corner of the desk.

Josh's eyes narrowed sharply. "Toby and I have been
working on that for weeks, you know that."

Sam nodded. "We just think with the.....circumstances
that it'd be better for you if you worked on something
else."

Josh leapt to his feet. "Like what?! Counting how many
parking tickets various ambassador's have gotten since
Bartlet got into office?"

Sam shook his head. "Josh, you're too close to it."

Lyman took a step toward his friend. "So what?! So is
most of America! Everybody knows somebody who's been
shot or killed!"Josh felt his voice crack on the last
word but continued. "For God's sake, Sam, we can't
send our kids to school without another kid blowing
them away. We can't go to McDonald's to get a
hamburger without some nutcase coming in and
shooting everything in sight! Donna was the last one!
Nobody else is going to bury a loved one because of
this senseless violence! This stops now and it stops
with this safety act. You're not taking me off of it!"

Before Sam could even think of a reply Josh turned on
his heel and stormed out of the office.