Bellesiles, Michael
Michael Bellesiles is a former professor at Emory University and the author of a book entitled Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun culture. Bellesiles book was politically motivated. He wanted to write a book that would give the Judiciary legal justification to abolish private gun ownership in America and effectively abolish the Second Amendment. Published in September 2000, it was a huge hit with the revisionist history crowd.
Bellesiles claimed that guns and violence go together. In early America (17th, 18th and 19th centuries) we had very low gun ownership and low homicide rate. After the Civil War, we had lots of guns and high homicide rates. His objective was to show that if guns were not widely owned, then individual gun rights were not important to the Founding Fathers and the Second Amendment did not protect individual gun ownership. Even though all of these assertions are false, Columbia University never checked the accuracy of his findings. Bellesiles received the prestigious Bancroft Prize in April 2001.
In April 26, 2002, law professor James Lindgren of Northwestern University released a devastating book review in the Yale Law Journal entitled “Fall from Grace; Arming America and the Bellesiles Scandal. Lindgren’s investigation found an astounding number of errors in Arming America. Lindgren wondered:
“How could Bellesiles count guns in about a hundred Providence wills that never existed, count guns in San Francisco County inventories that were apparently destroyed in 1906, report national means that are mathematically impossible, change the condition of guns in a way that fits his thesis, misreport the count of guns in censuses or militia reports, have over a 60% error rate in finding guns in Vermont estates, and have a 100% error rate in finding homicide cases in the Plymouth records he cites?”(1)
Other false claims by Bellesiles include:
• “All the governments regularly took a door to door census of firearms.” Not true. Never happened.(2)
• Only 15% of colonial Americans owned guns. Accurate research shows a minimum of 40% gun ownership and possibly as high as 79% In 2002, only 32.5% of Americans owned guns.(3)
• Claims that 53% of privately owned guns in Colonial America were old or broken. The correct percentage is less then 15.(4)
• Only 15% of colonial Americans owned guns. Accurate research shows a minimum of 40% gun ownership and possibly as high as 79% In 2002, only 32.5% of Americans owned guns.(3)
• Claims that 53% of privately owned guns in Colonial America were old or broken. The correct percentage is less then 15.(4)
These are but a few of the many factual errors in Bellesiles book.
Several months later, in July, 2002, the award was taken away when a board of inquiry found Bellesiles “guilty of unprofessional and misleading work.”(5) The board noted “egregious misrepresentation”(5) with data and added the board is “troubled that Bellesiles has not availed himself of the opportunities he has had since the notice of this investigation to examine, identify and share his remaining research materials. Even at this point, it is not clear that he fully understands the magnitude of his own probate research shortcomings.”(6)
Bellesiles book was written without a shred of intellectual honesty.
Sources:
1. Fall from Grace; Arming America and the Bellesiles Scandal. pg 38 http://www.yalelawjournal.org/the-yale-law-journal/content-pages/fall-from-grace:-arming-america-and-the-bellesiles-scandal/
2. Fall from Grace; Arming America and the Bellesiles Scandal. pg 9-11 http://www.yalelawjournal.org/the-yale-law-journal/content-pages/fall-from-grace:-arming-america-and-the-bellesiles-scandal/
3. Fall from Grace; Arming America and the Bellesiles Scandal. pg 9 http://www.yalelawjournal.org/the-yale-law-journal/content-pages/fall-from-grace:-arming-america-and-the-bellesiles-scandal/
4. Fall from Grace; Arming America and the Bellesiles Scandal. pg 22 http://www.yalelawjournal.org/the-yale-law-journal/content-pages/fall-from-grace:-arming-america-and-the-bellesiles-scandal/
5. Report of the Investigatibve Committee in the matter of professor Michael Bellesiles, 10 July 2002 pg 18
http://www.emory.edu/news/Releases//Final_Report.pdf
6. Report of the Investigatibve Committee in the matter of professor Michael Bellesiles, 10 July 2002 pg 19
6. Report of the Investigatibve Committee in the matter of professor Michael Bellesiles, 10 July 2002 pg 19
http://www.emory.edu/news/Releases//Final_Report.pdf
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Michael Bellesiles