Guns and Laws

Guest: Robert Spitzer, Ph. D., distinguished service Professor and chair of the Political Science Department at SUNY Cortland  Gun laws are Top of Mind today. Funerals were held this week for the victims of two separate mass shootings that took place within the span of 7 days – one at a military recruiting center in Chattanooga, the other in a movie theater in Louisiana. That last one happened just hours after President Barack Obama said this in an interview with the BBC:   “The one area where I feel that I've been most frustrated and most stymied it is the fact that the United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense, gun-safety laws.”  Louisiana, Chattanooga, Charleston, Newtown, Aurora  - each time someone with a gun kills multiple people and captures national attention, the debate over gun laws in America flares up. One side argues we need stricter gun laws to be safe. The other side argues that safety lies in allowing more Americans to arm themselves in self-defense.  Political scientist Robert Spitzer says the one thing you can count on in this debate is that nothing’s likely to change.