Powerful D.C. politicians are being removed from office by something other than elections - execution-style killings for which FBI Special Agent Nick Nettles is under pressure to find answers and suspects. That's when a weapons smuggling investigation drops Nick in the middle of an international scheme to expand gun distribution, block tighter U.S. gun laws and manipulate the public conversation on Second Amendment rights. For Nick, a lawman and gun-control advocate, uncovering the truth is personal - and could destroy his career and rock the nation, from the heights of government and industry to every citizen. But he isn't alone - someone else has bought into the high-stakes game and is going all-in to run guns off the table. Who will win when Death calls? THE STOUT STICK is a work of fiction. However, its central argument we see as no less outrageous than those being presented by the gun manufacturers and their lobbies, or the so-called "public servants" who pander to those manufacturers and lobbies for campaign contributions. No less outrageous, either, than the attitudes of that small, but vocal, portion of the electorate that sees even reasonable limitations to gun ownership as assaults on the Constitution and their perceived "God-given rights."