← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Faust
Thread ID: 3366 | Posts: 5 | Started: 2002-11-02
2002-11-02 04:28 | User Profile
Antigun historian quits Emory U. in disgrace!
Antigun history prof Bellesiles quits Emory Univ. in disgrace!
After a firestorm of controversy ever since its release in Sept. 2000, Arming America - a book that made Emory University history professor Michael Bellesiles a star outside academia for his claims that gun ownership was very rare in America before the War Between The States - has now resulted in Bellesiles being forced to resign when it was debunked. Last Friday, Bellesiles announced his resignation at the end of the year. While his book only expanded on his longtime thesis that probate records would measure gun ownership rates, it was credible claims that some of those probate records just didn't exist - rather than the obvious issue of whether probate records generally ever mention relatively-low-dollar items like guns - that rapidly degenerated into historians at other universities sharply questioning his honesty. That in turn led to Emory itself setting up an inquest into the honesty of his research. In a seven-page statement he released last Friday, Bellesiles conceded that at least some parts of his book moved into what they and he termed an "area of fabrication" and evasion. The committee's most serious gripes was that Bellesiles had simply omitted various whole years worth of records when studying old records to determine gun ownership rates; he admits to having omitted the years 1774 and 1775, but claims that he did so because colonial governments were passing out guns widely then - which really admits that the gun possession rate, regardless of ownership, was far higher than his book stated. Bellesiles also admitted to such things as having omitted 25 entire years of probate record for at least one North Carolina county in his research, claiming that was due to gaps - again raising questions about the accuracy of estimating ownership of anything from records from that era. He admitted last Friday that basing his research on probate records heavily skewed the results only to life among the wealthy of the time. In what was one of the most-comical excuses since "the dog ate my homework," Bellesiles claimed last Friday that Emory's microfilm readers didn't work. That was the basis for his dubious excuse for how - or whether - he ever studied records from seven counties. In this instance, he claims an anonymous source gave him the microfilms involved. In a stunning admission, Bellesiles last Friday admitted that "there are rarely complete runs for any form of documentation in the century prior to the Civil War" - the time his book was supposedly based on.
url: [url=http://www.alamanceind.com/nation/nation_1.html]http://www.alamanceind.com/nation/nation_1.html[/url]
Michael Bellesiles - the antigun history professor who quit Emory University in disgrace last Friday after a panel of fellow history profs found major gaps in his research claiming that probate records showed few Americans owned guns before 1860 - is now finding his troubles snowballing. Three days after Bellesiles quit Emory, gun-rights groups began calling for revocation of an award for authors in the field of American history that Bellesiles had received only last year. Last April, his book Arming America had received the prestigious Bancroft Prize yearly given by Columbia University - but, within months, it proved his undoing as other professors, many openly sharing his antigun biases, sharply questioned his research. Ironically, their doubts centered on the issue of the existence of the probate records he supposedly based his research on - rather than the far-easier issue of whether probate records even show much specific at all about individual or family assets. This Monday, the Second Amendment Foundation lead the calls for Columbia University to revoke the Bancroft Prize awarded to Bellesiles - in much the same way as a Pulitzer Prize awarded for a young Washington Post's story of an eight-year-old heroin addict had to be revoked about 20 years ago when it rapidly came out that the reporter had made it up. While Second Amendment Foundation founder Alan Gottlieb said that Bellesiles should be required to return the $4,000 cash grant he got with the Bancroft Prize, Gottlieb ignored the real issue; did the $4,000 Bellesiles was awarded for a fraudulent book violate federal mail-fraud laws if any part of the money went by mail - or wire-fraud laws if Bellesiles used the phone to get either the Bancroft Prize or negotiate raises from Emory?
url: [url=http://www.alamanceind.com/nation/nation_9.html]http://www.alamanceind.com/nation/nation_9.html[/url]
Michael Bellesiles
"So I ended up going through 11,500 probate records that recorded everything those people owned when they died. I wasn't seeing guns. I became obsessed with this idea--where are the guns? They're all supposed to have guns!" -Michael Bellesiles, Sept. 27, 1999 Emory Report
But does Emory University "historian" Michael Bellesiles' methodology even make sense? Does his claim that probate inventories prove what Americans owned - or more importantly, didn't own - before the Civil War actually make sense? Modern probate inventories shed light on this issue - but not in any way favorable to Bellesiles' research. For instance, here in Alamance County, prominent local lawyer John Xanthos died in 1991 - leaving an estate valued at $480,246 in his probate inventory. His probate inventory shows that, at the time of his death, Xanthos owned a Mercedes and had $343,608 in bank accounts as well as two homes here in Alamance County, half ownership of a building where he practiced law, and 30 acres in faraway Brunswick County. But apply Bellesiles' methodology to the Xanthos estate. While the probate inventory in the Xanthos estate doesn't list any firearms, it doesn't list a television, a camera, a typewriter, a desktop or laptop computer, a camcorder, a stereo, a clock, a watch, or even an AM radio either. Would Bellesiles seriously contend that Xanthos died not owning any of these items in 1991 - when Xanthos died a very rich man? Would Bellesiles seriously contend that one of this county's top two criminal-defense lawyers didn't own a typewriter or computer just because neither are specifically listed - when Xanthos' probate lists "miscellaneous property - office furnishings" valued at $3,375? Would Bellesiles argue seriously that a top lawyer died without a suit, shoes, or shirt to wear to court - just because none is listed in his probate inventory? Would Bellesiles seriously contend that the safe Xanthos kept in his law office didn't exist - just because it isn't specifically listed on his probate inventory? As any lawyer in this state can tell you, the reality is that anything not required to be registered with some governmental office - in other words, generally anything but cars or land - is lumped into such catchalls as "household furnishings" or "personal effects" in probate records that don't tell lawyers (or history professors) much at all about what specifically the deceased owned. Another reality is that state law specifically allows low-dollar estates to avoid being filed at all. And another reality any lawyer can tell you is true if illegal; much property is just informally handed down if it is not a type like land or cars that ownership of is registered with the government. (Did Xanthos - one of the wealthiest men in this county when he died in 1991 - own only $2,435 in "household furnishings" - when that phrase included any jewelry, stereos, camcorders, VCRs, and clothing?) As for any claim by Bellesiles' that probate records were more specific in the early 1800s to the point that all gun owners actually listed their weapons in their probate files, the burden of proof is on him to prove that Americans rebellious enough to have just waged a revolution against the preeminent world power of the time, who had then rebelled against Washington in such things as the Whisky Rebellion, and who would fight a civil war just a few years later would be exact in telling local officials exactly what they owned - or didn't own. It is time to tell the truth. Bellesiles quit Emory in disgrace on Oct. 25, 2002 - publicly admitting that day that "there are rarely complete runs for any form of documentation in the century prior to the Civil War."
url: [url=http://www.alamanceind.com/newfol~2/nation_33.html]http://www.alamanceind.com/newfol~2/nation_33.html[/url]
2002-11-02 17:35 | User Profile
Still, the university shows itself to be lacking integrity. This man quit, he was not fired. And this guy was no Rommel.
2002-11-03 02:30 | User Profile
Early American probate records, even if studied objectively, would be one of the poorer ways to guage the incidence of gun ownership in America. Most Americans died without any form of probate and even among those who did have estate inventories and accountings it is quite possible that guns were disposed of prior to death by either inter vivos gifts (prior to death) or gifts causa mortis (which were to take effect on death). The Executor or Administrator of the estate would have no control over them in either case.
Prior to the Second War of Independence, 1861-1865, aka the War Between the States, the best index of gun ownership might have been sales of black powder to civilians. Records of the sale or manufacture of firearms would have been scant, but records as to production and shipment of gun powder to civilian markets would be easier to reconstruct. I doubt the DuPonts got wealthy solely from military contracts.
After the War there was certainly widespread sale of surplus firearms. However, firearms technology was evolving rapidly and many of the firearms made in quantity (e.g. lever action Winchester rifles, single and double barrelled shotguns, etc) were not standard military issue and seldom found their way into military use. The famed Colt peacemakers were manufactured in quantities well in excess of military procurement and in many models and calibers the military never adopted.
God, guns and guts made America free, so lets keep all three!
2002-11-03 06:24 | User Profile
Some good RKBA sites:
[url=http://www.alamanceind.com]http://www.alamanceind.com[/url]
[url=http://www.keepandbeararms.org/index.htm]http://www.keepandbeararms.org/index.htm[/url]
[url=http://www.gunowners.org]http://www.gunowners.org[/url]
2002-11-03 09:38 | User Profile
When this falsifier of historys book came out, the *Atlanta Journal-Constitution* used it as a source for many an editorial in support of gun control. Now that this guy has been exposed as a liar I havent heard a peep out of them. :lol: