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Newtown, Connecticut. Aurora, Colorado. Both have entered our collective memory as sites of unimaginable heartbreak and mass slaughter perpetrated by lone gunmen. Meanwhile, cities such as Chicago and Washington, D.C., are dealing with the painful, everyday reality of record rates of gun-related deaths. By any account, gun violence in the United States has reached epidemic proportions.A widely respected activist and policy analyst—as well as a former gun enthusiast and an ex-member of the National Rifle Association—Tom Diaz presents a chilling, up-to-date survey of the changed landscape of gun manufacturing and marketing. The Last Gun explores how the gun industry and the nature of gun violence have changed, including the disturbing rise in military-grade gun models.
About the Author
I was born into a military family and raised largely in the American South, where I learned to shoot in the Boy Scouts and was on a rifle team in high school. I served in the Air National Guard as a small arms specialist and in the Army National Guard as an anti-tank platoon leader. Worked for the Department of Defense (Advanced Research Projects Agency) in Thailand for a while during the Vietnam War. I also served three years as a District of Columbia Police Department reserve officer.
I graduated from the University of Florida (BA Pol. Sci. 1962) (Go Gators!) and Georgetown University Law Center (1972, editor, Law Journal) . I've followed a wandering career course, practiced law in and out of government, became a journalist and ended up serving six years as assistant managing editor at the very conservative The Washington Times newspaper in Washington. My guru was the former editor-in-chief Arnaud de Borchgrave, a true professional whose passion was and is journalism and truth, not ideology. I also reported from Central America, Russia, India, Pakistan and the first Gulf War before leaving The Times. I then spent two years at a small think tank in Washington studying terrorism and international organized crime, and from there went to work in 1993 (following the first WTC bombing attack) as a Democratic counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Crime Subcommittee, where I worked on legislation and hearings involving terrorism and firearms.
I currently work part-time at the nonprofit Violence Policy Center in Washington. I sought out this work and center after I was converted from an NRA partisan to a gun control advocate based on what I learned about the predatory American gun industry while serving on "the Hill." The rest of my time I devote to projects involving the study of crime, terrorism, and history.
I used to be a "Scoop Jackson Democrat" politically, but today I am decidely non-partisan---I find little competence, honesty, or source of inspiration in either "organized party."
