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Robert J. Spitzer is an American political scientist, activist, and author.

Career

Spitzer is Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York at Cortland. He received his A.B. degree, summa cum laude, from SUNY Fredonia in 1975, his Master's degree from Cornell University in 1978, and his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1980. He has taught at Cortland since 1979, and as a visiting professor at Cornell University since 1988. At Cortland, he has served as Chair of the Political Science Department from 1983-1989, 2005-2006, and from 2008 to the present. Spitzer is the author of fourteen books and over five-hundred articles, essays, papers, and op-eds on many topics related to American government. His areas of specialty include the American Presidency, and gun control.

Activism

Since the 1980s, Spitzer has written books, spoken at public gatherings, written articles for newspapers, and appeared on countless radio and television shows in support of gun control, and has established himself as a passionate gun control supporter and activist.

Spitzer has also been interviewed and quoted extensively in the media in the U.S. and abroad on the gun issue, and other American politics subjects, in such outlets as The Today Show, Good Morning America, ABC Nightly News, PBS’s News Hour with Jim Lehrer, MSNBC’s Countdown With Keith Olbermann, CNN, NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, The Diane Rehm Show, the BBC, CBC, NHK, Der Spiegel, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Time Magazine, Newsweek, Slate, and Politico, among others.

Prior to and since the United States Supreme Court rulings in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and McDonald v. Chicago (2010), Spitzer argues that history and prior law do not support the individualist interpretation of the Second Amendment reflected in these two recent court rulings. Writing since the two cases were handed down, he said that "the Heller and McDonald rulings have established as a matter of law an individual rights interpretation of the Second Amendment. But although judges can change the law, they cannot change history, and the historical record largely contradicts the bases for these two recent rulings."

Public policy research

Since the start of his scholarly career, Spitzer has researched and written on many topics related to American politics and public policy, including the behavior of American institutions, national elections, the mass media, the Constitution, and New York State politics and policy. His first book, The Presidency and Public Policy, was a revised version of his doctoral dissertation. In it, he argues that presidential success in Congress was shaped by the type of policy proposed by presidents. His book The Presidential Veto is a wide-ranging examination of this under-appreciated presidential power, and it helped spark a new generation of research on the veto. His monograph The Right to Life Movement and Third Party Politics was a close examination of the New York-based Right to Life political party.

Books

Spitzer is the author of four books on gun policy, including The Politics of Gun Control. First published in 1995, it is now in its fifth edition (2012). This book is a wide-ranging examination of the gun issue that views the issue from a policy theoretic framework. It includes the history of America's gun culture, the Second Amendment, the criminological consequences of guns, the role of Congress, the presidency, political parties, public opinion, interest groups, federal agencies, as well as a comprehensive assessment of significant modern national gun legislation. It concludes by proposing a theoretical framework, drawn from international relations theory, to resolve the deadlock over this issue. Spitzer is also the author of The Right to Bear Arms, a comprehensive examination of the history of the Second Amendment, its interpretation by the courts up until the date of its publication, and the consequences for American politics.

His recent books include Saving the Constitution from Lawyers: How Legal Education and Law Reviews Distort Constitutional Meaning, and Gun Control: A Documentary and Reference Guide. Spitzer is the author of The Politics of Gun Control, a book that was first released in 1995 and is now in its fifth edition.

Partial bibliography

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• The Presidency and Public Policy (1983)
• The Right to Life Movement and Third Party Politics (1987)
• The Presidential Veto (1988)
• The Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution (1990)
• President and Congress (1993)
• Media and Public Policy (1993)
• The Politics of Gun Control (1995, 1998, 2004, 2008, 2012)
• Politics and Constitutionalism (2000)
• The Right to Bear Arms (2001)
• Essentials of American Politics (2002)
• The Presidency and the Constitution (2005)
• Saving the Constitution from Lawyers (2008)
• Gun Control: A Documentary and Reference Guide (2009)
• Encyclopedia of Gun Control and Gun Rights (with Glenn Utter) (2011)
• We the People: Essentials Edition (co-authored), 9th ed. (2013)
• Editor, Book Series on American Constitutionalism for SUNY Press

References

1. https://sites.google.com/site/robertspitzercortland/
2. ^ Spitzer, Robert; Kucinich, Jackie; McCarthy, Carolyn; Menino, Thomas; Kois, Dan (January 7, 2013). "An Update On Efforts To Prevent Gun Violence" (transcript) (Interview). Interviewed by Diane Rehm. {{cite interview}}: Unknown parameter |callsign= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |program= ignored (help)
3. ^ http://www.npr.org
4. ^ Spitzer, Robert J. (February 27, 2011). "Campuses Just Say 'No' to Guns". The Huffington Post.
5. http://www.saf.org/LawReviews/SpitzerChicago.htm
6. http://www.uapress.ua.edu/product/Presidency-and-Public-Policy,5545.aspx
7. http://www.amazon.com/Presidential-Veto-Touchstone-Presidency-Leadership/dp/0887068022/ref=sr_1_13?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331662163&sr=1-13
8. http://www.amazon.com/Movement-Politics-Contributions-Political-Science/dp/0313253900/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331662062&sr=1-11
9. http://www.paradigmpublishers.com/books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=287436
10. http://www.amazon.com/The-Right-Bear-Arms-Liberties/dp/1576073475/ref=sr_1_22?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331662190&sr=1-22
11. Spitzer, Robert J. (April 7, 2008). Saving the Constitution from Lawyers: How Legal Training and Law Reviews Distort Constitutional Meaning. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521896967.
12. Spitzer, Robert J. (March 20, 2009). Gun Control: A Documentary and Reference Guide. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0313345661.
13. Spitzer, Robert J. (September 30, 2011). The Politics of Gun Control. Paradigm. ISBN 978-1594519871.
14. "Faculty Highlights: Robert J. Spitzer". cortland.edu. State University of New York College at Cortland. June 21, 2005. Retrieved January 10, 2014.

External links

• Faculty/Staff Detail: Robert Spitzer Biography at State University of New York (SUNY) Cortland

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