The Last Gun: How Changes in the Gun Industry Are Killing Americans and What It Will Take to Stop It

by Tom Diaz

Overview

Tom Diaz's The Last Gun was first published in hardcover shortly after the tragic Newtown massacre. Major media outlets, including the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Democracy Now, NPR, and CNBC, rushed to contact Diaz, the widely respected gun control advocate, for his views on what Americans could do to bring an end to this epidemic of gun violence. As he told them, America is by far the most armed nation in the world, and it has the deaths to show for it: by some estimates, over 30,000 in 2013 alone. In this “readable and topical” (Bloomberg Businessweek) book, the former gun enthusiast and ex-member of the National Rifle Association lays out a lucid, incisive account of how we got here and what we can do to prevent future massacres.

Marshaling a range of stunning evidence and case studies, The Last Gun is essential reading for understanding how we can finally rid America's streets, schools, and homes of gun violence—and with effective gun control measures stalled in Congress, it remains as timely as ever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620970300
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	01/06/2015
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Tom Diaz is a writer, lawyer, and public speaker on the gun industry and gun control. Formerly senior policy analyst at the Violence Policy Center, he has been featured on MSNBC, NPR, and other national media. His books include Making a Killing (The New Press). He lives in Washington, D.C.

Editorial Reviews

"A blistering takedown of the gun business and politics."
—The Boston Globe

"A gripping narrative that combines plenty of factual data with compelling storytelling."
—Joshua Horowitz, executive director, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence

"Tom Diaz is one of the most insightful observers of the gun industry and the larger gun debate in America today."
—Robert J. Spitzer, author of The Politics of Gun Control

"Diaz knows his subject inside and out and, like the prophets of old, hurls his arguments from the mountaintop with terrible precision."
—Andrew Gumbel, journalist and author of Steal This Vote

From the Publisher

A longtime critic of American gun culture aims again at targets he holds responsible for the carnage. Diaz (Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America, 1999, etc.) pushed for responsible gun control legislation and regulation while employed at the Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C. This new book, obviously timely in the wake of recent mass murders around the country, updates and expands his advocacy. In the first three chapters, the author documents the extraordinary level of gun violence in the United States compared to other nations and explains the impact of such violence on individuals and families, cities and rural areas, states and the entire democratic experience. Then, Diaz focuses on gun manufacturers and policy lobbyists, especially the National Rifle Association, that, in Diaz's view, are more concerned with their profit-and-loss statements than with the emotional losses suffered when guns kill or maim. The author attempts to prove that the NRA and its allies are not too powerful to resist successfully in the institutions that have previously enabled them, from state legislatures and Congress to the White House and the courts. Although Diaz is an advocate, he is not shrill; he gathers evidence through careful reporting and marshals his arguments well. Many of the case studies are horrifying and instructive but little known, in part because local media coverage is rarely picked up outside its tight geographic radius. Diaz is on firm ground when he claims that gun violence is actually underreported in the United States, which makes the incidents in the headlines all the more frightening. His suggested reforms, while not original, are well-presented at a time when similar proposals are being debated in state legislatures and Congress. May not alter opinions among true believers on either side of the gun control debate but will hopefully influence the thinking of people with open minds.

Kirkus Reviews