The Last Gun

March 25, 2013
Diaz (Making a Killing) leaves no doubt as to his position on gun control. With an avalanche of statistics and narrative accounts drawn from police records and news media, he argues that Second Amendment rights have been taken to ridiculous lengths, as when parents take guns to their children's sports events. While it's difficult to accurately gauge their true defensive utility, guns in private homes are often used to kill family members or commit suicide. Diaz lists the results of Florida laws on gun use and questions the statements of the NRA that only "law-abiding, upstanding" citizens could get concealed gun permits. He also covers the arsenals owned by paramilitary groups who practice warfare at "zombie shoots". But Diaz is most outraged by the legislators who refuse to address the issue, and the courts, particularly Supreme Court Justice Scalia, for being an "ambassador for the gun industry." Most of the book emphasizes the dire state of gun accessibility, though his suggestions for solving the problem are less clear. More importantly, perhaps, Diaz calls out the NRA's doubletalk, urging Americans to support more stringent laws for gun ownership and use.

April 15, 2013
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.

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April 15, 2013

As he did in his previous book, Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America, Diaz (former senior policy analyst, Violence Policy Ctr.) here argues passionately for stricter gun-control regulations. Following on the previous book, he looks at the changes taking place in the gun industry as it markets more lethal weapons to the consumer and seeks to influence state and national legislation in favor of more lax gun laws as well as frame the way we as a society think and speak about gun violence. Highlighting the growing lethality of easily acquired firearms and the influence of the gun lobby on our ability to access data related to gun crime, Diaz, a former NRA member and gun enthusiast, offers actions that concerned citizens, policymakers, the media, and public health practitioners can take to lessen the future incidence of gun violence in America. VERDICT Gun-control activists will welcome this book, which will also find a broader audience given the renewed interest in a national gun-control debate in the wake of the Aurora, Newtown, and other recent shootings.--Elizabeth Winter, Georgia Inst. of Technology Lib., Atlanta

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