Program: 'Origins of Gun Control'

MIDDLETOWN — Gun control in America is debated in editorials, radio talk shows, classrooms, backyards, and legal briefs. Dr. Saul Cornell, the author of two prize-winning works on American legal history, will speak on "The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control: The Forgotten History," at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 30, in the Sandra and Alan Gerry Forum, Room 010 in the Rowley Center for Science and Engineering, SUNY Orange, Middletown.

The event is free and open to the public.

Cornell, one of the nation’s leading authorities on early American constitutional thought and American intellectual and cultural history, will separate myths from realities. He will define “a well-regulated militia” and the original meaning of the Second Amendment.

Cornell'ss work has been widely cited by the U.S Supreme Court and several state supreme courts as well as legal scholars and historians. Presently, he is the Paul and Diane Guenther Chair in American History at Fordham University.

Previously, he was a professor of History at Ohio State University, where he was the director of the Second Amendment Research Center at the John Glenn Institute. He has been a guest expert on PBS’s Need to Know, and has authored four books and co-authored three others. His many articles have been published in the Journal of American History, American Studies, William and Mary Quarterly, and Constitutional Commentary.

His presentation will be the second in the college's mini-lecture series celebrating the U.S. Constitution.

The Rowley Center is located on the Middletown campus of SUNY Orange with free parking available in the garage at the corner of East Conkling and Wawayanda Avenues and the Orange Hall lot at the corner of Grandview and Wawayanda Avenues. For more information call 341-4891 or email cultural@sunyorange.edu.