By DYLAN DEMARTINO

On Thursday March 7, Fordham’s Saul Cornell, the Paul and Diane Guenther chair in American history at Fordham, spoke to a packed Flom auditorium.

Cornell’s lecture, “The Great American Gun Debate: Where do we go From Here?,” incorporated Dr. Cornell’s academic background in early American history and his experience litigating on “Second Amendment issues” such as the landmark supreme Court Case Heller v. District of Columbia.

He also drew on his personal response to the recent gun violence related tragedy in Newtown to present an analysis on gun violence and the debate on the status of firearm regulation in the United States.

Cornell argued that advocates of what he called the “weaponization of the Second Amendment,” namely pro-gun lobbies and political organizations who argue that the Second Amendment of the Constitution endorses unfettered rights to the ownership and use of all firearms are significantly more effective in organizing grass roots level political activism as well as in drumming up support in Congress than those who advocate for a more comprehensive firearm control regime.

Cornell linked the effectiveness of this pro-gun activism as well as the perennial difficulty of pro-gun control advocates to the vibrant pockets of “regional gun culture in our federal system.”

This discussion comes at a time when efforts to impose a stricter system of regulation on firearms have gained political traction at various state levels and at the federal level. The catastrophe in Newtown Conn. has served as a call to action for many activists, who have argued that firearm use, particularly use of assault rifles, poses a significant threat to society and indicates a need for stricter gun laws. In the backdrop of a polarized federal government, this issue has resulted in the proliferation of a partisan characterization of the debate over guns in a split down the political aisle.

Assertions about history play an important role in this political posturing over the status of gun control in the United States.

Cornell noted that pro-gun lobbyists interpret the Second Amendment as a representation of a monolithic consensus of the Founding Fathers that all citizens should be able to access firearms if they so desire. Pro-gun activists also tend to depict political leaders in favor of gun control as similar in policy and sensibility to totalitarian autocrats like Hitler or Stalin who allegedly limited the gun rights of their oppressed citizenry.

As a historian with specific interest in early American history, Cornell brings a level of academic expertise to the topic that goes a long way in informing Fordham students about the more complicated and evolving characterization of the Second Amendment than the political side of our nation’s gun regulation debate often allows for. Michael Latham, dean of Fordham College Rose Hill, Ph.D., agreed.

“With a highly charged topic like this one, it is always helpful to have a longer-term, historical view,” Latham said. “As Dr. Cornell demonstrates, the questions surrounding public possession of firearms in the United States are not new, and the Second Amendment has a history that usually gets lost in the current ideological divide.”

Access to scholars like Cornell can provide detailed insights that can potentially transcend opinion on controversial and ideological issues and play an important role in encouraging students to learn facts, not just talking points. Fordham’s arrangement of such events displays the role that the academic world can play in informing policy crafting and the ideas behind those policies. When asked about future plans for similarly themed events, Latham is optimistic that events like this will spur students to consider giving more detailed thought to the role of historical narratives in contemporary events.

“I would love to see more events like this one on campus,” Latham said. “We have such an incredibly talented faculty, with expertise across so many fields of study.  The chance to have our faculty discuss issues of vital contemporary importance in an open forum like this is very valuable.  I thought it was a great event for students to reflect on the issue.”