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Robert J. Spitzer is an American political scientist, author, commentator, specialist in American politics, gun policy, American presidency, and the U.S. Constitution.

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. He served as President of the Presidency Research Group of the American Political Science Association from 2001-2003 and as a member of the New York State Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution from 1986-1990. He has testified before Congress on several occasions. 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.

Gun control research

Since the 1980s, Spitzer has written books, given many lectures and talks, and written articles for newspapers including the Washington Post, the New York Daily News, and the Los Angeles Times. He has appeared on such radio outlets as NPR's Fresh Air With Terry Gross, and on television networks such as MSNBC. Spitzer’s analysis of the gun issue finds most gun regulations to be compatible with America’s political and legal history and traditions, as well as with viable contemporary public policy. 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."

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). 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 book Gun Control: A Documentary and Reference Guide was published in 2009, and his reference work Encyclopedia of Gun Control and Gun Rights, co-authored with Glenn H. Utter, was published in 2011.

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. His book Saving the Constitution from Lawyers: How Legal Education and Law Reviews Distort Constitutional Meaning, argues that legal training serves the practice of law well, but when applied to constitutional analysis, produces wayward theorizing. Since 1997, Spitzer has been series editor for the book series on American Constitutionalism published by SUNY Press.

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. http://www2.cortland.edu/schools/arts-and-sciences/robert-j.-spitzer.dot
2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-gun-control/2012/12/21/6ffe0ae8-49fd-11e2-820e-17eefac2f939_story.html?hpid=z2
3. http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/president-speed-article-1.1241395
4. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jan/08/opinion/oe-spitzer8
5. http://www.npr.org/2011/01/27/133247508/the-history-and-growing-influence-of-the-nra?&f=13&sc=tw&cc=freshair
6. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3036677/vp/41050819#41050819
7. 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)
8. Spitzer, Robert J. (February 27, 2011). "Campuses Just Say 'No' to Guns". The Huffington Post.
9. Spitzer, Robert J. (October 11, 2013) . "Lost and Found: Researching the Second Amendment" (PDF). Chicago-Kent Law Review. 76 (1). Scholarly Commons. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
10. https://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/righting-the-gun-debate LA Review of Books essay
11. Robert J. Spitzer (September 2011). The Politics of Gun Control (5th ed.). Paradigm. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
12. Robert J. Spitzer (2001-11-01). The Right To Bear Arms: Rights And Liberties Under The Law. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781576073476. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
13. Spitzer, Robert J. (March 20, 2009). Gun Control: A Documentary and Reference Guide. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0313345661.
14. http://www.greyhouse.com/guncontrol.htm
15. Spitzer, Robert (2012). Presidency and Public Policy. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-8173-5746-7. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
16. Robert J. Spitzer (September 1988). Presidential Veto: Touchstone of the American Presidency (Suny Series in Leadership Studies). State Univ of New York Press. ISBN 9780887068027. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
17. Robert J. Spitzer (1987-01-19). The Right to Life Movement and Third Party Politics (Contributions in Political Science). Praeger. ISBN 9780313253904. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
18. 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.
19. http://www.sunypress.edu/Searchadv.aspx?IsSubmit=true&CategoryID=6882&FIND.x=22&FIND.y=12
20. "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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• Misplaced Pages articles needing copy edit from January 2014
• Living people
• State University of New York at Fredonia alumni
• American political scientists
• Gun politics
• Gun writers
• Firearm books
• People associated with firearms
• Gun control advocates
• American gun control advocates
• Cornell University alumni
• State University of New York at Cortland faculty