Robert Spitzer (political scientist)

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Robert J. Spitzer is an American political scientist. He is Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York at Cortland. He graduated from New Hartford High School in 1971, and holds a 1975 B.A. from SUNY Fredonia, a 1978 M.A. from Cornell University, and a 1980 Ph.D. from Cornell University.

Spitzer is the author of eleven books and hundreds of articles, essays, and papers on many topics related to American government. His areas of specialty include the American Presidency and gun control. Among other works, he is the author of The Politics of Gun Control (ISBN 1-56802-905-5), a book which analyzes the political antecdents and consequences of the controversial issue of gun control. The book's analysis includes the history of gun control, the Second Amendment, criminological consequences of guns, the role of interest groups, public opinion, Congress, Presidency, the courts, and the major legislative acts pertaining to gun control, including the Gun Control Act of 1968, the Firearms Owners Protection Act of 1986, the Brady Act of 1993 and the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994.

Spitzer views the Brady Act as a success, not because it led to a reduction in crime, but because it demonstrated that the NRA could be defeated, and because the higher fees imposed by the act led to the number of licenses gun dealers falling from 300,000 to 100,000. [1]

Spitzer personally rejects the "standard model" interpretation of the Second Amendment, and instead holds that "the Second Amendment pertains only to citizen service in a government-organized and regulated militia". [2]