Guns across America: Reconciling Gun Rules and Rights

by Robert Spitzer

Overview

Gun ownership is as old as the nation, but, as Robert J. Spitzer demonstrates in Guns across America, so is gun regulation. In vast swathes of America, the sanctity of the Second Amendment has become a political third rail, never to be questioned, yet by employing new research on early gun laws, Spitzer reveals that firearms were in fact more strictly regulated in the country's first three centuries than in recent years. The first "gun grabbers" were not 1960s Chablis-drinking liberals, but seventeenth century rum-guzzling pioneers, and their legacy continued through strict gun regulations into the 1920s and beyond. Indeed, as gun rights proponents seek to roll back gun laws and press guns into as many hands as possible, warning that gun rights are endangered, they sidestep the central question: are stricter gun laws incompatible with robust gun rights? Spitzer answers this question by examining New York State's tough gun laws, where his political analysis is complemented by his own quest for a concealed carry handgun permit and construction of a legal AR-15 assault weapon. Not only can gun rights and rules coexist, but they have throughout American history. Guns across America reveals the long-obscured truth: gun regulations are in fact as American as apple pie.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190621063
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/01/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Robert J. Spitzer is Distinguished Service Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at SUNY Cortland. He is the author of 15 books, including five on the presidency and five on gun policy, and of over 600 articles, essays, and papers appearing in many books, journals, newspapers, and web sites on many American politics subjects. He is a former president of the Presidency and Executive Politics Section of the APSA.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

1. Why Do We Have Government?

2. Our Forefathers were Smarter About Guns Than Us

3. What About the Second Amendment?

4. How Did We Get from Self-Defense to Shoot First?

5. The Case of New York

APPENDIX: State Gun Laws, 1607-1934

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/01/2015
Spitzer (chair, political science dept., State Univ. of New York Cortland; The Politics of Gun Control), a gun control advocate, provocatively challenges the "gun myth" of American history. Guns, the author argues, were an integral part of America's past, but gun control laws were equally a fundamental characteristic of American history. Colonial and state governments enacted thousands of gun-control measures over the past 200-plus years, many much stricter than today's measures. From 1791 through 2007, none was overturned for violating the Second Amendment. Today's relaxation of gun control laws, Spitzer strongly asserts, clearly reverses the history of strong regulation of firearms in America. Similarly, the concept of individual gun rights in the Second Amendment and "Stand Your Ground" laws create new rights that never existed before in American history. The author presents convincing research that shows that death by guns tends to be the lowest in states with the strongest gun control laws. By building his own legal assault rifle in New York (where gun laws are very restrictive), he seeks to demonstrate that strong laws are not impossible obstacles to gun ownership. VERDICT Based on extensive research, this book contests strongly held beliefs in contemporary America and will appeal to those interested in the Second Amendment, gun control, and guns in American history.—Mark Jones, Mercantile Lib., Cincinnati

Library Journal