THE GUNSHINE STATE-Tom Diaz, Dangerous Gun Laws on Bill Moyer’s & Company

Tom Diaz on Dangerous Gun Laws

July 19, 2013

"BILL MOYERS: I heard you say earlier that the real winners in the Florida tragedy are the NRA and the gun industry. How so?

TOM DIAZ: Well, for two reasons, I think. One, it, in their eyes validates the whole concept of this, what they call Stand Your Ground law. Look, Zimmerman stood his ground and nothing bad happened to him, so that validates the idea that you're going to need these things to protect yourself. Secondly, it increases the market which is what ultimately this is all about. Now they have a case to say, don't you wish you had one of these things in your pocket if some guy was beating your head in the sidewalk? So, one hand reinforces the other."

July 19, 2013

Web Extra: Tom Diaz on the Relentless Marketing of Guns

"BILL MOYERS: Tom, let's continue. We're talking about The Last Gun: How Changes In the Gun Industry Are Killing Americans and What It Will Take to Stop It.

BILL MOYERS: Somebody has referred to Florida as the gun-shine state. Is that justified, that mockery?

TOM DIAZ: I do believe it is for a specific reason. The NRA has used Florida as what I call sort of a test tube. Florida was the first of the major states to change the law about concealed carry itself. Used to be if you wanted to carry a gun about, concealed, you had to ask for permission. It was called a May-issue. The authority might or might not give you the gun. Florida was one of the first states to change to what's called a Shall-issue state. Later on it led to this whole concept of Stand Your Ground mixed up with the Castle doctrine. So yeah, Florida is the Petri dish and then the bacillus has spread through American Legislative Exchange Council and other media to the rest of the country"

BILL MOYERS: Why the title, The Last Gun?

TOM DIAZ: Well, I think the logic of the title, it's that until they sell the last gun the gun industry will continue to do the kinds of things that I describe in the book. They're not giving up. They, I write, I describe, have you ever seen a wounded snake on a highway where they're just dangerous because they're lashing about? And that's the way the gun industry is. It's, over the long term in bad health, it's got public opinion, I think, in a large extent are weighed against the industry. And they're going to keep doing what they do until they absolutely cannot any longer. The gun people like to say there are law abiding people and there are bad people and we want the law abiding people to have guns. I don't think humanity is that simple. Humanity is a complex of all kinds of people. Good people do bad things when they have access to guns. People who've been married for many, many years suddenly have a breakup, I can't tell how many stories I've read, typically the husband comes home, kills his wife and kills himself. Not a bad person until the moment something snaps and he uses that gun which is there.

BILL MOYERS: The book is The Last Gun: How Changes in the Gun Industry are Killing Americans and What It Will Take to Stop It. Tom Diaz, thanks for joining me.