The Gun Dilemma

An informed and sophisticated look at the current debate between gun laws and gun rights in America. Contemporary gun controversies are deeply rooted in our history, yet much of that history is unknown, ignored, or distorted. This is all the more important because a new gun rights movement is pressing to expand the definition of gun rights well beyond the standard set by the Supreme Court in its landmark, controversial Heller ruling from 2008. These activists' efforts have found a receptive audience among a new generation of very conservative federal judges cultivated in part for their professed adherence to the doctrine of constitutional Originalism and fealty to an expansive reading of gun rights. In The Gun Dilemma, Robert J. Spitzer examines this "gun rights 2.0" movement in the light of a host of gun controversies: assault weapons, ammunition magazines, silencers, public gun brandishing and display, and the emergent Second Amendment sanctuary movement. Given the importance of actual gun law history to this debate, Spitzer draws from the historical record to illuminate several contemporary and emergent gun controversies that may well make their way to the Supreme Court. Revealing and illuminating as that history is, he argues that we should not be straitjacketed by that history, but rather informed by it as the nation struggles with how to frame its gun policies. By utilizing novel information sources to explore both gun law history and current debates, The Gun Dilemma provides an informed and sophisticated challenge to the ascendant originalists who appear to be set on enshrining in law a radical libertarian vision of gun rights.

Straight from the frontier of scientific investigation . . . Nowhere is creative scientific talent busier than in the world of inorganic chemistry. And the respected Progress in Inorganic Chemistry series has long served as an exciting showcase for new research in this area. With contributions from internationally renowned chemists, this latest volume reports the most recent advances in the field, providing a fascinating window on the emerging state of the science. "This series is distinguished not only by its scope and breadth, but also by the depth and quality of the reviews."-Journal of the American Chemical Society. "[This series] has won a deservedly honored place on the bookshelf of the chemist attempting to keep afloat in the torrent of original papers on inorganic chemistry."-Chemistry in Britain. CONTENTS OF VOLUME 48: * Synthesis, Structure, and Properties of Organic-Inorganic Perovskites and Related Materials (David B. Mitzi, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York). * Transition Metals in Polymeric ?1 -Conjugated Organic Frameworks (Richard P. Kingsborough and Timothy M. Swager, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts). * The Transition Metal Coordination Chemistry of Hemilabile Ligands (Caroline S. Slone, Dana A. Weinberger, and Chad A. Mirkin, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois). * Organometallic Fluorides of the Main Group Metals Containing the C-M-F Fragment (Balaji R. Jagirdar, Eamonn F. Murphy, and Herbert W. Roesky, Universit't G'ttingen, Germany). * Coordination Complex Impregnated Molecular Sieves-Synthesis, Characterization, Reactivity, and Catalysis (Partha P. Paul, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas). * Advances in Metal Boryl and Metal-Mediated B-X Activation Chemistry (Milton R. Smith III, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan).

"The authors explore the origins of the American gun culture and the makeup of both the gun rights and gun control movements. Written in question-and-answer format, the book will help readers make sense of the ideologically driven statistics and slogans that characterize our national conversation on firearms."--Publisher's description.

"Thought provoking, should help bring balance and accuracy to the debate". -- Booklist

A provocative, timely, and deeply-researched history of gun culture and how it reflects race and power in the United States

This work offers wide-ranging coverage of the American gun culture, the history and meaning of Second Amendment, the criminological consequences of guns, the policy-making roles of Congress, the presidency, the bureaucracy, interest groups, public opinion and the political parties.

After spending more than twenty-years years as a Special Agent with the FBI, Kathy Stearman recounts the global experiences that shaped her life—and the mixed feelings that she now holds about the sacrifices she had to make to survive in a man’s world. When former FBI Agent Kathy Stearman read in the New York Times that sixteen women were suing the FBI for discrimination at the training academy, she was surprised to see the women come forward—no one ever had before. But the truth behind their accusations resonated. After a twenty-six-year career in the Bureau, Kathy Stearman knows from personal experience that this type of behavior has been prevalent for decades. Stearman’s It’s Not About the Gun examines the influence of attitude and gender in her journey to becoming FBI Legal Attaché, the most senior FBI representative in a foreign office. When she entered the FBI Academy in 1987, Stearman was one of about 600 women in a force of 10,000 agents. While there, she evolved into an assertive woman, working her way up the ranks and across the globe to hold positions that very few women have held before. And yet, even at the height of her career, Stearman had to check herself to make sure that she never appeared weak, inferior, or afraid. The accepted attitude for women in power has long been cool, calm, and in control—and sometimes that means coming across as cold and emotionless. Stearman changed for the FBI, but she longs for a different path for future women of the Bureau. If the system changes, then women can remain constant, valuing their female identity and nurturing the people they truly are. In It's Not About the Gun, Stearman describes how she was viewed as a woman and an American overseas, and how her perception of her country and the FBI, observed from the optics of distance, has evolved.