Spotlight on Historian’s Second Amendment Expertise

Saul Cornell, Ph.D., the Paul and Diane
Guenther Chair in American History.
Photo by Gina Vergel


Saul Cornell, Ph.D., the Paul and Diane Guenther Chair in American History, has been enriching the current national debate on gun regulation with a historian’s perspective. 



In the wake of the Newtown tragedy, Cornell’s op-eds and commentary have appeared in a variety of news outlets. This month Cornell will be part of a PBS weeklong exploration of guns in America, from their Colonial roots to their present-day politics. Flagship programs, from Frontline, to Nova, to Washington Week, will all feature the subject.



An expert on the history of the Second Amendment and author of A Well Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control (Oxford University Press, 2006), Cornell has gone on record with his concerns of when the Second Amendment overshadows the First Amendment. “Judging by the effort to deport Piers Morgan, the CNN host who promoted gun control, there is at least a constituency among Second Amendment supporters who don’t seem to have read the First Amendment—they seem to have just skipped to the Second Amendment,” he said recently. 



Cornell will be exercising his right to free speech on Feb. 19 at 9 p.m. on PBS nationwide, Channel 13 in New York as part of "After Newtown: Guns in America." You can see the trailer here.