span. it can see tonight of a program on george wallace again at 11:00 p.m. eastern. online, you'll find a schedule of the series, biographies of all the candidates, historian appraisals, and speeches. that is at c- span.org/thecontenders. >> you will hear from 8 of the republican candidates. this was hosted by the american enterprise institute and the heritage foundation. you can see that tomorrow at 9:20 pm eastern here on c-span.

>> the story of the civil-rights movement cannot be told without birmingham, alabama. we look behind the scenes at the history and literary life of this city. september 15th, 1963. a bomb rocked a baptist church killing four young girls. that story through the eyes of a survivor and friend. even under the hazardous working conditions, people fought to work at the mill in jacksonville. on c-span too, on how martin luther king's jr. letter from a birmingham jail set the tone for the movement. a blast furnace that was opened in 1881, it produced for nearly 100 years.

then there will be discussion on birmingham during the great depression. this weekend on c-span 2 and 3. >> arizona has chalice the federal government on issues ranging from health care too birthright citizenship. up next, a panel discussion on these issues and why the state seems to be the source of new initiatives. this includes gabrielle giffords, the former speechwriter. -- this includes gabrielle giffords and former speechwriter. >> i don't know if you have noticed but arizona has been in the news a lot lately. it really has. that is one of the reasons why we are here. i work for the "new york times" and we decided to open a phoenix bureau and i am the first ever phoenix bureau chief.

one of the reasons why they did that is that we were sending reporters into arizona all the time so we decided not -- why not have someone stay here. arizona is hot. we were meeting in arizona at the time. he was not talking about the temperature, he was talking about the fact that news was breaking here. sitting to my left is a professor at arizona state university and his work is on

the electoral process. if she was active in party politics and served as a precinct captain and a member of the electoral college. next to her art hamilton. he founded a public relations firm in 2008 after serving 26 years in the arizona house of representatives. he was 18 consecutive years as

the leader of the house. the arizona republic has named him one of the 10 best modern legislators in arizona history. he was the first african- american and only arizona and to be elected president of the national conference of state legislatures which represents all 50 state legislatures in their dealings with the federal government. he continues to serve on their foundation. next to him is a fifth generation arizonan. he has worked as a speechwriter for congresswoman gabrielle giffords. he was a reporter for many newspapers including the arizona republic and he is the author of "the heartless stone

." his new book is "a safe way in arizona, what gabrielle giffords shooting tells us about the grand canyon state." these are our panelists, please welcome them. [applause] i got on to the "new york times" computer system and i found out that arizona has been mentioned in 69 front-page stories in the last year. 69 front-page stories. that is more than florida, more than ohio, more than illinois.

arizona still lags well behind new york but we are the "new york times." it lags behind california. arizona has been in the news a whole lot. if you watch fox news, it appears that the governor has your on show -- has her own show. she is on with greta van susteren pretty often. not all of these articles have delved into politics. there are all sorts of ways in which arizona finds its way into the news. remember the head of the imf, dominique strauss-kahn. that case had an arizona connection printed the woman who accused him of sexual assault was in touch with her boyfriend who was imprisoned in arizona.

[laughter] a lot of the articles or about illegal immigration, about the shooting in tucson. arizona, for reasons that we will find itself tonight, find his way to becoming the center of the conversation. to start to get at this question if arizona is the front line of american politics. let's start with jennifer, how long have you been here in arizona? what drew you hear?

what do your friends and family members outside of the borders of this state think about your decision to come here? >> they think that we are crazy. i have been here for just over a year. we arrived in the dead of summer 2010. such a wonderful time to move to arizona. we came for professional opportunities. my husband and i had wonderful opportunities and i was excited to join the faculty here. we came from connecticut. i went from a solid blue state to a solid red state. most of my friends in the academic world are pretty solidly blue and i cannot tell you how many times people would literally crack jokes. you are moving to arizona, do not forget your papers.

people thought it was an odd choice. we were excited about the up and say that presented itself. i am from the west and i have spent time in arizona before. this was not like coming to a strange land for me. it was very comfortable to come back to the west. >> sometimes what i understand bothers me. i love being here. one of the joys of being a recovering arizona politician is that i get to travel all lot in terms of my own life and being a

member of the national conference of state legislatures. a good friend of mine was the current speaker he said that in we were glad in the union because -- a good friend of mine was the current speaker. he said that they were glad we were in the union because it makes mississippi look good. >> i will steal a line who sent it that leaving arizona is easy, i have done it five times. for me, coming back to arizona is something of a repeating pattern. i left when i was 18, i was glad to see it in the rearview mirror in many ways. i came back to work for the

arizona republic, which was a great privilege. i also came back to haunt -- to help gabby with her campaigns. i love it for its opportunities, for what it wants to be. >> i was at a debate between russell pearce and is recall opponent. he said that they were in front of the parade.

i will ask the panel what they think about that. since the passage of the immigration legislation, arizona legislation has been blocked out in the courts. >> a lot of states have been following the model. it makes sense that arizona would be at the forefront of the immigration policy.

the country as a whole will get there in 200040 or so. >> people following arizona, on the immigration issue, to you have a sense that arizona is the model for a lot of other states. >> other states, other legislatures would be sort of crazy not to look at what transpired in arizona and use that as they define their own proposals. they can look to our experience and see what was the fallout. they can watch the legislation unfold and see how that goes.

i don't mean perhaps positive connotations go into that language but clearly we have set a standard and have lessons for other states. >> are we leading the parade? >> yes, we are marking smartly into the 18th century. -- we are marching smartly into the 18th century. we are a border state. we have the problems of immigration. we have the current secretary of homeland security, the former governor of this state. we are steeped in the whole issues of immigration. we have encouraged people to come here from south of our border to help us with our agriculture and other things. as the economy went south and as

people really began to become afraid and fearful. with all due respect, we mastered the politics of subtraction and division. this is a model that while i am saddened by, i think that the rest of the country had gravitated towards. >> i believe that it is correct. this is deeply ingrained in the states heritage and the economy to encourage mexican labor to come here and has been that way since territorial days.

it is easy to pretend that this is not a strong part of the lifeblood of this state. a university of arizona study indicates that it far more than is taken away from us. i think it is no coincidence that the bill came to the floor just as the housing market started to go south. we have a nation of changing demographics.

what you have our people with very different sets of life priorities and not a lot of familiarity. that is a toxic mix. >> who makes this state? >> i am interested how we are all doing research in this same thing. i have some nice statistics from the "in new york times" coverage of arizona as well. of timespent a lot since i've been here writing about guns and guns are allowed

in this state in all sorts of places where they would not be allowed in new york, where i am from. there is a unique view towards fire arms here3 i would like tom to talk about this state plus a views on firearms and what this says about arizona. -- i would like tom to talk views ons state of''s

firearms. i was alarmed to see guns on people's hips. i was talking to a bank teller and he said that someone walked into a bank of america with a gun. he thought that the man was robbing the bank. he was just conducting bank business. you can carry a gun into a bank in arizona. in looking into the gifford shooting, what was your view of how the state added cost the state attitude -- what was your view of how the state attitude contributed. >> the shooter was able to buy a

gun very easily. arizona is not unique, you can do this in many states. in arizona, there is this idea of guns entangled with this idea of liberty and independence from the federal government. hthis is heavily flavored with a libertarian streak. this is a philosophy and tangled with who we are in the united states but it tends to reinforce some of the solitary aspects of our nature. that was also a striking theme which what happened to gabrielle giffords.

a man could go slowly mad in public for up to four years and at the very end walk into the sportsman warehouse and with very little on their, purchase a firearm. >> how did the gun issue play out in your years in the legislature? >> we have always had guns. in arizona, people had guns on their hips from the time that i was a little boy. it is never quite comfortable with it but as long as it was showing. what changed was when people began pushing concealed weapons. there was to be no limit on a person's right to bear arms, to hide your gun. the thing that fundamentally changed was that in my misspent youth and the legislature, one

of the bar is on people excessively pushing this whole notion of guns was the fact that the police would come and say, that is too far. at this point, you jeopardize the welfare of the men and women in blue. we actually continued down this road so far as the police objected and people rolled right by them. the police made it clear that they thought that we had exceeded those rules and regulations, those allowances that made police officers and safe and that was not enough to stop this kind of role towards absolute freedom. i think what has happened is because of our open notions about guns.

everyone in this building has discussed this. >> i spent time in idaho. for me, the gun culture does not seem unique to the state of arizona. this is a western phenomenon. this is something that i experienced in in the intermountain west in several states. i may newcomer but i'm willing to be educated. do you think it is unique year compared to the states that have a similar heritage of individualism and exercising the pretty -- and emphasizing

liberty? >> in that sense, we are congress -- congrous. we are one of the great labs for this idea. in arizona, it plays out in a certain way. an arizona there is a toxic mix between older latinos and young girl latinos. that is a recipe for political confrontation. -- in arizona, there is a toxic mix between older latinos and latinos.nger this would not have gotten past second or third base in sacramento, santa fe, austin.

they have more mature political structures. this is where latinos have much greater political power and where the political culture of the state is not as open to experimentation and this vast influx of newcomers that we have in arizona. it is easy to get elected having lived here a short time. >> incidently, one of the stories that got on the front page of the new york times is how arizona is a leader in the knives rights movement. there are a little limits on the size of a knife. only the state legislature can limit the size of a knife you can carry. there was concerns about bayonets, machetes, and other

types banned one place and not in another. there are no restrictions on the knives either. i thought it would be interesting for us to talk about the politicians in the state who are the leaders of the state. we will talk to art about this. from my perspective, a lot of the leaders here in joy thumbing their nose at the federal government. they take great pleasure, particularly with president obama in office. in general, there is this sense that they view the federal government as an impediment to their freedom. whether it is challenging the

u.s. constitution when it comes to birthright citizenship or taking on the health care reform that passed in the congress, and you have a lot of challenges, court cases coming out of arizona. what other part of the country can you know the name of the county sheriff? >> hazard county, alabama. >> jan brewer is a well-known governor. the leader is of this state have become known across the country. i will ask art to psychoanalyze if he could, who are the leaders of arizona today?

does he view them as being representative of the majority sentiment in at the u.s. today? >> i would suggest site go without the analyzing. i think clearly it would be russell pearce. if you think about it, people come in this presidential season. many cases, it was third. the first place they would go is to see sheriff joe. of course, then miss bachmann wanted to go see russell pearce. people are trying to tap in to that very negative, divided sentiment that seemed to