Political scientist Robert Spitzer on the rhetoric of guns: “In the 1970s, you see the Second Amendment rhetoric escalate dramatically as an argument against stronger gun laws and to identify gun ownership with American values and historical values. You find this increasingly heavy emphasis on Second Amendment rights and Constitutional rhetoric as part of the argument against enacting stronger gun laws.”

Imagine the outcry if the government did today what it did early in the country’s history: conduct a census of arms among the general population. In the days when national defense needs rested heavily with citizen militias, it was important for the government to know who owned how many guns, and in what condition.

— Tomorrow’s guest, political scientist Robert Spitzer, explaining how in the earliest census questionnaires, the United States asked citizens how many guns they owned. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about the history and evolution of gun control and the growing influence of the NRA with Spitzer, the author of several books on the politics of gun control.