Distinguished Service Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at SUNY Cortland
Robert J. Spitzer (Ph.D., Cornell University, 1980) is a distinguished service professor and chair of the Political Science Department at SUNY Cortland. He is the author of fifteen books, including five on gun policy, most recently GUNS ACROSS AMERICA (Oxford University Press 2015).
Gun Law History in the United States and Second Amendment Rights
New York State and the New York SAFE Act: A Case Study in Strict Gun Laws
Minors, Guns, History, and the Second Amendment
April 24, 2024
Hundreds of years ago, officials understood that the intersection of minors and weapons posed a special risk that justified greater legal restrictions. Contemporary evidence supports the same conclusion. Continue Reading...
Stand-Your-Ground, the Castle Doctrine, and Public Safety
May 3, 2023
This blog explores the development of stand-your-ground (SYG) laws and a variety of recent studies that examine their consequences. Continue Reading...
Understanding the New Gun Policy Collision
July 12, 2022
What is to be made of the fact that two of our national governing institutions, Congress and the presidency, strengthened federal gun laws while the third branch, the Supreme Court, acted to steer the nation in the opposite direction? Continue Reading...
The Sandy Hook-Remington Settlement: Consequences for Gun Policy
March 21, 2022
In this expert opinion, Robert Spitzer details four key elements of the Sandy Hook settlement with Remington and the case’s larger context and consequences. Continue Reading...
Expert Opinion: The Coming Collision of Gun Laws and Rights
May 10, 2021
In this expert opinion, Robert Spitzer, a member of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium, argues that the Supreme Court is poised to impose an interpretation of the second amendment that undermines broadly supported, commonsense gun laws. Continue Reading...
Ep. 26. Gun Policy & Politics in a Pandemic
August 25, 2020
Robert J. Spitzer, a distinguished service professor at SUNY Cortland and member of the Rockefeller Institute of Government's Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium, speaks with Consortium Executive Director Joe Popcun about recent developments in firearm policy and politics. Continue Reading...
October 3, 2019
This special edition of Policy Outsider was recorded live at a forum hosted by the Rockefeller Institute of Government and features distinguished scholar Robert J. Spitzer's presentation on gun policy. Continue Reading...
“Stand Your Ground” Laws Have Failed to Stem Crime or Improve Safety
May 31, 2018
The marriage of expanded stand-your-ground laws with escalating civilian gun toting increases unnecessary violent confrontations and deaths. Continue Reading...
Gun Law History in the United States and Second Amendment Rights
March 5, 2017
The notions that gun laws are largely a function of modern America, that gun laws are incompatible with American history and its practices or values, and that gun laws fundamentally collide with American legal traditions or individual rights, are all patently false. Continue Reading...
New York State and the New York SAFE Act
March 17, 2015
With so much hand-wringing among gun rights activists nationwide about the reputedly adverse effects of stricter gun laws, it is not only useful, but instructive, to examine a place that already has such laws: New York State. Continue Reading...
