Second Amendment discussion April 2

On Tuesday, April 2, Emerson College will hold its third panel discussion in a four-part series, Made in America: Our Gun Violence Culture, which was prompted by President Lee Pelton to increase dialogue on gun violence in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting last December.

The latest discussion, “The Second Amendment: What is it? What is it not?” will explore different interpretations of the Second Amendment, which allows firearm ownership.

The event will be held at the Bill Bordy Theater, 216 Tremont Street, Boston, from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. It is free and open to the public with seating on a first come, first served basis.

Moderated by Ted Canova ’82, the executive editor of news for WGBH-FM, the panel will include Brent Carlton, director and president of Comm2A, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and expanding the rights of firearms owners in Massachusetts; Karen MacNutt, consulting attorney for gun rights advocacy organizations and contributing editor to Women & Guns magazine; Kent Greenfield, professor and Law Fund Research Scholar at Boston College Law School; and Mark Tushnet, professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School.

On Thursday, April 25, the final panel discussion, “The Cultural, Social, and Economic Underpinnings of American Violence,” will be held. Details will be released in the coming weeks.

Previous Made in America panel discussions were about correlations between video games and gun violence and gun laws in America.

In January, Pelton wrote a letter to President Obama that has received signatures of support from nearly 300 college and university presidents offering assistance in leading a nationwide dialogue on gun violence.

Pelton has since launched the College Presidents’ Gun Violence Resource Center website.

The student group Emerson Peace and Social Justice, with assistance of other student groups, has organized Emerson Aim to End Violence Week. Beginning on Monday, March 25, the week is full of events that will foster discussion around gun violence.