and from san francisco, robin thomas is the quif director of search and prevent gun violence. the title of your book seems to say it all. more guns, less crime. do you believe the solution is more guns, and what if they wind up in the hands of the mentally ill. >> we want to keep people that are dangerous from getting guns. the problem overall, police are extremely important, are not going to be there all the time to protect people. they arrive after the crimes occur. what can they do. telling people to behave passively. it's not good advice. >> looking back on that. >> we have the congresswoman on... >> for 30 years, the guns don't kill people, but a lot are dying. if that's the case... you say more people should have guns. >> look, guns make it easier to kill people, they make it easier to protect people and prevent bad things happening. the question is what is the net effect. i give you a simple example. every place in the world has seen increase in murder rates, every place,s it's just not washington d.c. and chicago in the united states. even if island nations ban guns, y

. >> robin thomas executive director at law center to prevent gun violence in san francisco. >> you'dbe shocked at how quickly fees can go up very very high. the amount of time spent preparing lawsuits and working on their defense. >> in fact the court order tallies up all of the costs. phillips will be charged for attorney's fees travel expenses even postage. but despite the shocking headline about costs, legal experts say the outcome of the case isn't really that surprising. >> there have been a number of cases that have worked their way through state or federal courts. >> santa clara law school says a federal law, a shield law, that protection of lawful commerce in arms act, where plcaa makes it difficult to bring any legal action against arms or ammo makers and dealers. >> it provide a fairly broad blanket shield for manufacturers. >> there is absolutely no other industry in the country that receives that kind of protection from our government. thz but is plcaa so ironclad that phillips stood no chance at all? >> when it comes to this case the optics aren't good in the sense that

thomas, abc news, washington. >> and do stay with us here at abc news for the latest on the shooting. robin roberts will speak with killed. that's coming up on "good morning america." >>> the faa is investigating a scare involving an allegiant air flight. a plane taking off from las vegas started lifting off and nose wheel off the ground before hitting the right speed. the alarmed pilots fighting against the plane's controls couldn't push the nose back down. they had to abort the takeoff. the airline says that a part of the plane malfunctioned and they are now inspecting every plane in its fleet. >>> there is nothing more frustrating than coming bang to where you parked your car and seeing that it's about to be towed. so this florida driver tried to do something about it. fighting the tow truck tooth and nail. that cannot be good for his suv elevated at a 45-degree angle. his attempt to escape failed and now it looks like he's going to have plenty of damage to pay for. >> well, time for your thursday morning sports. >> how about some baseball highlights? we'll get that now from our guys at

abc's pierre thomas has the latest and joins us this morning from washington. good morning, pierre. >> reporter: good morning, robinthis hack is truly worse than we previously knew and hundreds of thousands of taxpayers will soon get letters in the mail warning that their most sensitive information may have been compromised. the number of americans potentially affected by the irs hack has jumped from 114,000 identified in may to today 334,000. not just names, dates of birth and social security numbers stolen but also that intensely personal information on tax forms. salaries, places of employment. where they live. whether they're married and if they have children. in short, all the information that could allow criminals to assume their identities. this latest disclosure comes as the u.s. faces an epidemic of cyberattacks targeting not only private businesses but federal agencies. in recent months the state department hacked, the white house targeted and that massive opm breach involving millions of government workers and just last week the pentagon acknowledged one of its unclassified e-mail systems had been hit. w