The new edition of this classic text covers the latest developments in American gun policy, including shooting incidents plaguing the American landscape - especially Sandy Hook, the Colorado theatre shootings and the tragic death of Trayvon Martin - placing them in context with similar recent events. The incidents described in the book sparked a wave of gun control legislation at local, state and national levels, some of which was successful, some doomed and all controversial. At the national level, President Obama put his political capital on the line to push for new gun control measures, only to see them shot down by Congress. Robert J. Spitzer has long been a recognised authority on gun control and gun policy. His even-handed treatment of the issue - as both a member of the NRA and the Brady Center - continues to compel national and international interest, including interviews by the likes of Terry Gross, Tom Ashbrook and Diane Rehm. This sixth edition of The Politics of Gun Control provides the reader with up-to-date data and coverage of gun ownership, gun deaths, school shootings, border patrols and new topics including social media, stand-your-ground laws, magazine regulation, and shooting-related mental health initiatives.

The new edition of this classic text covers the latest developments in American gun policy including the most recent shooting incidents that persist in plaguing the American landscape. Continuing a multi-decade trend, crime generally remains low throughout the US, but mass shootings have increased in both number and lethality, stoking greater support for gun laws among the public. Two seismic political events are highlighted in the eighth edition. The first is the ascendance of the gun safety movement, culminating in numerous electoral victories for gun law supporters in 2018 congressional and state races around the country. This outcome, which contributed to the Democrats’ capture of the House of Representatives for the first time since 2008, also demonstrates that support for stronger gun laws could be a winning issue for proponents in 2020 and beyond. The second political development featured is the financial, political, and legal crises that beset the nation’s oldest and most powerful gun group, the National Rifle Association. These crises are sufficiently grave that they may pose an existential threat to the organization’s traditional dominance in the realm of gun politics. Author Robert J. Spitzer has long been a recognized authority on gun control and gun policy. His even-handed treatment of the issue--as both a member of the NRA and the Brady Center--continues to compel national and international interest, including appearances on major media such as the PBS NewsHour. The eighth edition of The Politics of Gun Control provides the reader with up-to-date data and coverage of gun ownership, gun deaths, school shootings, border patrols and new topics including universal background checks, limits on large capacity ammunition magazines, and "red flag" laws. New to the Eighth Edition Covers the ascendance of the Second Amendment sanctuary and gun safety movements, resulting from heinous shootings in Las Vegas and Parkland, Florida. Tracks the financial, political, and legal crises that threaten the dominance of the National Rifle Association. Examines new policy measures including universal background checks, limits on large capacity ammunition magazines, the bump stock controversy, and "red flag" laws, among others.

In recent years, political discourse about gun control and the Second Amendment has become increasingly volatile and this collection of original essays by top scholars illuminates the various reasons why. Gun lobbies such as the National Rifle Association are more organized and aggressive and their issue agenda has evolved as new and more powerful weapons and militia appear. On the other side of the debate, the critical wounding of James Brady gave gun control advocates a visible martyr with strong ties to Republican conservatives. In sum, gun control and the right to bear arms have become hotly disputed issues where political alignments are constantly shifting. The contributors chart these changes and explore how Congress, the courts, the President, and individual states are currently addressing the issue of gun control. This book, which includes profiles and examinations of relevant interest groups, the gun control coalition, recent Supreme Court decisions, and public opinion surveys, will be of great interest to classes in political science, American government, law, and sociology.

Covering the history of firearms and gun control in America, this two-volume work presents original documents and helps readers understand these documents in relation to the social and political context in which they were written. Offering the most complete collection of primary documents on the subject of guns and gun politics, this two-volume set will give readers a comprehensive, unbiased understanding of the complex and often-surprising evolution of gun ownership, gun culture, and gun politics in the United States. This fascinating history is examined through approximately 150 primary source documents from the Colonial era to the present day. Each section opens with an informative headnote that provides important context for understanding the social and political milieu in which the document was created. The chronologically arranged set begins with Colonial laws regulating firearms, then proceeds through debates regarding the Second Amendment and laws that prohibited slaves from possessing guns. The use and regulation of firearms in the "Wild West" is explored, as is the era of Prohibition and organized crime in the 1930s. Later chapters cover the impact of 1960s-era racial and political violence and assassinations on gun laws and attitudes; the struggles over gun control and gun rights in the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations; the increased clout of the NRA during the Bush administration; and the impact of events ranging from the Sandy Hook Massacre to the Supreme Court's District of Columbia v. Heller decision. Documents include laws, speeches, court decisions, Congressional debates, and more, giving college students and other interested readers the opportunity to evaluate each document—and each period—for themselves.

In recent years, political discourse about gun control and the Second Amendment has become increasingly volatile and this collection of original essays by top scholars illuminates the various reasons why. Gun lobbies such as the National Rifle Association are more organized and aggressive and their issue agenda has evolved as new and more powerful weapons and militia appear. On the other side of the debate, the critical wounding of James Brady gave gun control advocates a visible martyr with strong ties to Republican conservatives. In sum, gun control and the right to bear arms have become hotly disputed issues where political alignments are constantly shifting. The contributors chart these changes and explore how Congress, the courts, the President, and individual states are currently addressing the issue of gun control. This book, which includes profiles and examinations of relevant interest groups, the gun control coalition, recent Supreme Court decisions, and public opinion surveys, will be of great interest to classes in political science, American government, law, and sociology.

The Ninth Amendment holds that every right not explicitly granted to the federal government by the Constitution belongs to the states or to the individual. Further, those rights held by the government should not be construed to deny or disparage other rights held by the people. As in other areas of contention between federal power and states' rights, the Ninth Amendment has become subject to activist Supreme Court interpretation whereby the traditional model of federalism, in which states had meaningful public policy prerogatives, has given way to a model in which states become mere extensions of the U. S. government. In this volume, Marshall DeRosa provides a thorough analysis of Supreme Court unenumerated rights policy and offers suggestions toward reestablishing American federalism as envisioned by the framers of the Constitution. The book opens with a review and analysis of current debates over Ninth Amendment rights and then utilizes the privileges and immunities clauses as demonstrative of the traditional relationship between the states' police powers and unenumerated fundamental rights. DeRosa then considers the critical role of academia in shifting public policy away from popular control and toward the judiciary. Later chapters include national and state case studies as instances of judicial creativity, an examination of the effects of Ninth Amendment jurisprudence on the Second Amendment as it bears on the gun control debate, and a comparative analysis of contrasting theories on the status of unenumerated rights. In his conclusion DeRosa offers some prescriptive thoughts on how to restore the original constitutional concept of popular consent as a remedy to an increasingly unaccountable federal judiciary. By restoring the Ninth Amendment to the context of American federalism, this volume constitutes a major contribution to contemporary scholarship, challenging a corpus of commentary that either ignores, misunderstands, or misrepresents the relevance of popular control in the articulation of unenumerated rights. The Ninth Amendment and the Politics of Creative Jurisprudence will be of interest to political scientists, historians, legal theorists, and political practitioners.

Discusses the controversial viewpoints regarding gun control.

This book examines the controversies surrounding gun control, which are less about whether it "works" and more about whether the nation should prioritize traditional values of rugged independence or newer values of communitarian interdependence. America's Gun Wars contends that an understanding of America's gun controversy cannot be found in statistics documenting the rise (or fall) of violent crime, or in examining trade-offs between societal needs and personal safety, or in following the political maneuvering of advocacy groups such as the National Rifle Association or Everytown for Gun Safety. At heart, the gun controversy is a values conflict involving how people see themselves and how they make sense of the world they live in. Understanding this controversy requires a deep analysis of the profoundly different cultures inhabited by pro- and anti-gun activists, lawmakers, and voters. Written by a social scientist who has spent his life exploring how values and self-perceptions impact behavior, this book explores the origins and evolution of cultures in American society; the beliefs, experiences, and principles that guide the behavior of members in both camps; and the triumphs and failures that the two sides have experienced from colonial times to the present day.

"One-third of American adults-some 86 million people-own firearms. This is not just for protection or hunting. Today it is common to associate US gun-centric ideology with individualist and libertarian traditions in American political culture, but Race, Rights, and Rifles shows that gun-centric ideology rests on a very old, but different foundation-a belief system dating back to the American Revolution that fuses republican notions of civic duty with a belief in white male supremacy and a commitment to maintaining racial and gender hierarchies. Alexandra Filindra calls this belief system ascriptive martial republicanism because it combines republican ideals of civic virtue with an exclusionary vision of citizenship and an emphasis on martial preparedness over other forms of civic participation and service. Drawing on wide-ranging historical and contemporary evidence, Race, Rights, and Rifles traces how this ideology emerged during the Revolution and became embedded in America's institutions, from state militias to the National Rifle Association (NRA). Although no longer a dominant ideology, ascriptive republicanism remains a potent force in American politics, and the NRA is a critical vector of its influence. New survey data shows that many White Americans -including those outside of the NRA's direct orbit-understand citizenship in ascriptive martial republican terms. This ideology is a robust predictor of gun ownership, support for the NRA, and beliefs that guns are a sign of good citizenship. Moreover, those who embrace this ideology are more likely than others to value gun rights over voting rights, to embrace antidemocratic norms, and to justify political violence"--

More than 150 key social issues confronting the United States today are covered in this eight-volume set: from abortion and adoption to capital punishment and corporate crime; from obesity and organized crime to sweatshops and xenophobia.