Fresh Air

Fresh Air with Terry Gross was particularly biased and frustrating the other day.

Specifically the author Robert Spitzer criticising the Supreme Court justices in the Heller vs. D.C. majority with a dangerous ignorance of the notion of an individual right to bear arms historically in the United States.

Spitzer reminded me much of the shameful Michael Bellesiles book, now a scandal and debunked, Arming America in which the thesis was that widespread gun ownership is a recent trend toward what had been essentially a mythical yet widely believed untruth.

It sounded so similar that I looked up both of their names, and, lo, here is Spitzer's review of Bellesiles steaming mess over at Powell's:

"Meticulously, even extravagantly researched, this book is a tour de force. Bellesiles has done what no one before has — examine the fact behind American gun mythology. This book will transform the modern gun debate by moving it from hysteria to sensible analysis. In every respect, a superb piece of historical work." Robert J. Spitzer, author of The Politics of Gun Control--

If you wish a compelling and I believe important examination of the history of those rights as they came to us through English common law might I recommend Joyce Lee Malcolms' "To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origin of an Anglo American Right" along with her other fine books.

That Spitzer fellow also pulls that tedious crap where he says "And I am actually a member of the NRA", yeah, in sheep's clothing. He really ought to be embarrassed. So should NPR, but we know how they must maintain their narrative.

Interview transcript here. He even contradicts himself in his own interview.