A shotgun shot.
Generally, gunpowder is a mixture of sulfer, charcoal, and potassium nitrate.
This is the status of the US auto safety regulation and regulatory oversight. It is better than nothing (maybe) but many have called it political theater that does not accomplish anything lasting for consumers. Everyone expects witnesses to lie under oath.
One hour into the [Takata Dec 3] hearing, Rep. Billy Long, R-Mo., leaned toward his microphone, stared at the witness from Takata and asked: "How many more people will die before you issue a national recall?"Moments later, Long threw a second rhetorical haymaker, offhandedly remarking that owning a vehicle with Takata airbags "is tantamount to driving down the highway with a shotgun aimed at you from behind the steering wheel."
David Sedgewick writes in Automotive News about Takata's lack of DC friends
This article notes that a Republican (who would be expected to treat corporate interests softly) has taken aim, and it strongly implies that in other auto safety scandals, the Republican members of Congress attempted to defend the automakers, including Toyota.
They had "despicable political reasons" for doing so, according to a recent NHTSA docket filing by intrepid aircraft safety engineer Geoff Barrance.
Question: Why have Republicans coddled the auto industry and turned a blind eye to consumer deaths and to the misconduct of corporate executives whose decisions allowed those deaths to happen?
Now we have shotgun-like Takata airbags aiming at millions of drivers worldwide.