Pretty much a sham report bought the NRA.... "Arming America: Origins of a National Gun Culture," an award-winning book that claimed early Americans did not possess or use firearms nearly as much as is popularly believed. The book, published in 2000, won the 2001 Bancroft Prize, the highest prize in the field of American history... The scholarly panel's focus was too narrow, attacking the entire book and the author's integrity as a scholar based on three paragraphs and a table in a 600-page book. The report said panelists could not determine whether Bellesiles falsified probate records from various locations around the country, as some critics have charged. But the panel did conclude that Bellesiles falsified a table detailing gun ownership because he omitted, without telling readers, gun counts in 1774-76. Bellesiles acknowledged omitting the information, but only for 1774-75, because he said those counts were unnaturally high. Colonial governments were handing out firearms to militias in anticipation of the Revolutionary War, he said. Well, a man's reputation was ruined but no children were killed.....
Where is your proof they did not...? An award winning book voted on by leading historians is declared "bad" because of three paragraphs and a table in a 600-page book..... I guess S. Ambrose would have been shot for his plagerism... Oh wait, he didn't write anti-gun books.... Dude, you are a forum punching clown..... Copy & Paste boy extraordinaire... baaa, baaaa, baaaa.........
Unfortunately, the 'problems' go far beyond "3 or 4 paragraphs and a bad table." Nonexistent data, deliberate misreporting of other data and the list is just beginning. Have to wonder on whose payroll was Bellesiles. http://instapundit.com/lawrev/Lindgren.pdf
Re: Unfortunately, the 'problems' I think he did get some hefty "grants" from AGS (Americans for Gun Safety, formerly Hangun Control, Inc.) and the Violence Policy Center, both advocates of strict gun control and avowed enemies of the National Rifle Association. But they give money to almost anyone who will chirp their "guns are evil" party line like good little parrots. So it really doesn't matter. The point is, he's a liar, a fraud, and a shill for the "ban all the evil guns" crowd.
