"This accessible legal history describes how the Second Amendment has been interpreted throughout most of American history and shows that today's gun-rights advocates have drastically departed from the long-held interpretation of the constitutional right to bear arms."

A national debate continues to rage in regard to 2nd amendment rights in contemporary society. This collection will deal with concerns about domestic violence committed by guns, the ramifications of a widely armed citizenry, the government's failure to pass comprehensive gun legislation, as well as police brutality, strong gun lobbies, open carry laws, home-grown terrorism, the recent rise of fatal shootings of black men by police, and the Orlando massacre. From domestic terrorism to the Black Lives Matter movement articles in this title reflect differences in policy views on the subject in the longstanding debate around gun rights and gun control.--From the publisher's description.

"This book offers concise, understandable coverage of all aspects of the issue, including incidence of gun violence; gun control; gun rights; government regulation, legislation, and court decisions; gun organizations (for gun control and for gun rights); gun enthusiast subcultures--for example, hunters, target shooters, and collectors; and U.S. attitudes toward guns. Many of the covered topics are placed in historical and cross-cultural perspective. The new edition of Gun Control in the United States: A Reference Handbook enables the reader to navigate and interpret the research to become sufficiently educated on any specific aspect of the gun issue to make an informed decision--for example, whether to support stricter or more lenient gun control; whether to become a gun owner; whether to support a particular political party or candidate; or whether to develop or to refine a particular philosophy regarding guns." --From the publisher's description.

History professor Williams (God’s Own Party) provides readers with a deeper understanding of the continuing debate about abortion in America in this thoughtful examination of the early pro-life movement, focusing on the period between 1937 and 1972. - Publishers Weekly

One of the most private decisions a woman can make, abortion is also one of the most contentious topics in American civic life. Protested at rallies and politicized in party platforms, terminating pregnancy is often characterized as a selfish decision by women who put their own interests above those of the fetus. This background of stigma and hostility has stifled women's willingness to talk about abortion, which in turn distorts public and political discussion. To pry open the silence surrounding this public issue, Sanger distinguishes between abortion privacy, a form of nondisclosure based on a woman's desire to control personal information, and abortion secrecy, a woman's defense against the many harms of disclosure. Laws regulating abortion patients and providers treat abortion not as an acceptable medical decision--let alone a right--but as something disreputable, immoral, and chosen by mistake. Exploiting the emotional power of fetal imagery, laws require women to undergo ultrasound, a practice welcomed in wanted pregnancies but commandeered for use against women with unwanted pregnancies. Sanger takes these prejudicial views of women's abortion decisions into the twenty-first century by uncovering new connections between abortion law and American culture and politics. New medical technologies, women's increasing willingness to talk online and off, and the prospect of tighter judicial reins on state legislatures are shaking up the practice of abortion. As talk becomes more transparent and acceptable, women's decisions about whether or not to become mothers will be treated more like those of other adults making significant personal choices.--From the publisher's description.

"Tells the powerful story of Sebastian Sepulvedas experiences in working with patients at the end of their lives. In some cases, death came quickly, after the patient was first diagnosed with a terminal condition and entered the hospital. In other cases, patients had a long, progressive illness that got increasingly worse over the months or years until they were in their final days. In some cases, patients were able to fight off death for many years. Hard decisions are often madewhether to resuscitate or not, whether to choose hospice or not, who makes the decisions when a patient cannot, and whose decision to follow when several family members are involved in decision making. Written from the perspective of a medical doctor from years of experience, this personal approach to the end of life explores the many options available to patients and their families and reveals how real people have come to those decisions, and how they play out. With insight and sensitivity, Sepulveda offers families an important window into how life can end with compassion, care, control, and dignity. At Deaths Door features over fifty stories drawn from Sepulvedas experience as a doctor dealing with these patients and families. As states debate the legality of assisted suicide and other end of life rights, real people make real decisions every day regarding end of life. Their stories come to life in these pages, and readers with similar concerns will find relief, comfort, and company as they face these decisions themselves."--Book jacket.

"Author Michael DeCesare examines Dr. Jack Kevorkian's actions in the context of the right-to-die movement to understand his crucial role in bringing the controversial practice of assisted suicide into the public conversation."--Back cover.

"In the 1970s, the United States had an incarceration rate comparable to those of other liberal democracies-and that rate had held steady for over 100 years. Yet today, though the US is home to only about 5 percent of the world's population, we hold nearly one quarter of its prisoners. Mass incarceration is now widely considered one of the biggest social and political crises of our age. How did we get to this point? Locked In is a revelatory investigation into the root causes of mass incarceration by one of the most exciting scholars in the country. Having spent fifteen years studying the data on imprisonment, John Pfaff takes apart the reigning consensus created by Michelle Alexander and other reformers, revealing that the most widely accepted explanations-the failed War on Drugs, draconian sentencing laws, an increasing reliance on private prisons-tell us much less than we think. Pfaff urges us to look at other factors instead, including a major shift in prosecutor behavior that occurred in the mid-1990s, when prosecutors began bringing felony charges against arrestees about twice as often as they had before. He describes a fractured criminal justice system, in which counties don't pay for the people they send to state prisons, and in which white suburbs set law and order agendas for more-heavily minority cities. And he shows that if we hope to significantly reduce prison populations, we have no choice but to think differently about how to deal with people convicted of violent crimes-and why some people are violent in the first place. An authoritative, clear-eyed account of a national catastrophe, Locked In transforms our understanding of what ails the American system of punishment and ultimately forces us to reconsider how we can build a more equitable and humane society."--From the publisher's description.

In Why American Prisons Fail: How to Fix Them without Spending More Money (Maybe Less), two former law school classmates, Peyton Paxson, a criminal justice professor, and George H. Watson, a past federal inmate and former attorney, address the issues currently facing our corrections system. They begin by describing how events in the late twentieth century cause the U.S. to have the highest incarceration rate in the world today. They go on to discuss how Watson found himself in prison and his observations of how prisons fail to do their job - to rehabilitate prisoners and prepare them for reintegration back into society. The book provides brief surveys of the history of criminological theory and American prisons and compares U.S. penology with that of other Western democracies. The authors also examine the political and economic factors that drive today's mass incarceration phenomenon. They conclude with a discussion of existing best practices and proposed reforms to move away from expensive and unsuccessful mass incarceration toward a more effective system. Why American Prisons Fail is particularly timely, as there are rising bipartisan calls in Washington and among the states to adopt a different response to crime.--Back cover.
Other Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.