In March, a federal appeals court overturned a decades-old Washington, D.C. law banning handguns. It was the first time a federal appeals court struck down a gun law on the grounds that it violated the Second Amendment. Host Margot Adler talks with Shelly Parker, a Washington, D.C. resident and one of the plaintiffs in the case.
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Host Margot Adler speaks with Robert Spitzer about gun ownership in America and the impact of the Virginia Tech shootings on the gun control debate.
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Robert Spitzer
is distinguished service professor of political science at the State University of New York (SUNY), College at Cortland. His books include The Politics of Gun Control and "The Right to Bear Arms: Rights And Liberties Under The Law." In 2003 he received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship.
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The Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms, but is it an individual right or a collective one? Texas Law School’s Sanford Levinson and Carl Bogus of Roger Williams University debate the meaning of the Second Amendment.
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Carl Bogus
is a law professor at Roger Williams University. He has written several articles on the Second Amendment, including "What Does the Second Amendment Restrict? A Collective Rights Analysis and The Hidden History of the Second Amendment."
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Gun control has long been considered one of the nastiest political wedge issues between Republicans and Democrats. However, it’s no longer as partisan as it once was. Adam Allington has this report.
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Last year, the city of Greenleaf, Idaho, adopted an ordinance that encourages its citizens to keep a gun at home in case of emergency. It received national attention, including comic barbs from Jay Leno and the Daily Show. Host Margot Adler talks with Steven Jett, the Greenleaf city councilman who wrote the ordinance.
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Host Margot Adler gets a different perspective on the Washington, D.C. gun ban. She talks with Shanda Smith of Mothers on the Move Spiritually, a group aimed at strengthening families. In 1993, Smith's son and daughter were shot and killed while riding in a car.
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