Emory Continues Probe of ‘Arming America’ Author
By Robert Stacy McCain
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Emory University is continuing its investigation of historian Michael
Bellesiles, author of a book that attacks the “myth” of early American gun
ownership.

“Professor Michael Bellesiles will be on paid leave from his teaching duties
at Emory University during the fall semester,” the university said in a
statement released yesterday.

Scholars say they have found evidence of research fraud in Mr. Bellesiles’
book, “Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture,” which one
critic says is full of “massive misrepresentation” and another says is
“riddled with errors.”

The university’s six-month investigation “is continuing,” the statement
said. “Professor Bellesiles and the university have agreed that the results
of the university’s inquiry will be made public when the inquiry is
completed.”

Members of the Emory history department had expected to hear an announcement
about Mr. Bellesiles’ tenure today, Melissa Seckora of National Review
reported yesterday on that magazine’s Web site (nationalreview.com).

Classes begin at Emory next week. The university, an elite private
institution on the east side of Atlanta, previously announced that it
planned to conclude its inquiry into Mr. Bellesiles’ work by September.

Emory was forced to begin its investigation of “Arming America” after
critics exposed extensive errors and apparent fabrication of sources in the
book.

“Arming America” reaped enthusiastic endorsements when it was published in
the fall of 2000. Reviewers praised it as “exciting” and “valuable.” Among
other things, Mr. Bellesiles claimed that, contrary to popular belief,
private gun ownership was rare in early America. Gun control advocates
credited Mr. Bellesiles with “demolishing the myth” of Second Amendment
rights to individual ownership of firearms. The book won the prestigious
Bancroft Award last year.

Meanwhile, other researchers ? including author Clayton Cramer and Northwest
University law professor James Lindgren ? began to document errors in
“Arming America.”

Scholars especially condemned “Arming America’s” misrepresentation of 18th-
and 19th-century probate records, which Mr. Bellesiles said proved that guns
were rare in America’s early days. Mr. Lindgren and others suggested Mr.
Bellesiles had fabricated some sources, pointing out that he cited
California records that had been destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco
earthquake.

Ohio State University history professor Randolph Roth wrote that the
conclusions of “Arming America” were “not supported by the sources Mr.
Bellesiles cites, the sources he does not cite, or by the data he presents.”

Mr. Bellesiles claimed he would be vindicated by a symposium on his work
that was published in the William and Mary Quarterly in February, but the
contributors to that issue were overwhelmingly negative toward “Arming
America.”

Emory announced an investigation in February. In April, the university
announced that its internal review was complete and it had “concluded that
further investigation would be warranted by an independent committee of
distinguished scholars.”

In May, the National Endowment for the Humanities announced it was
withdrawing its sponsorship from a fellowship awarded to Mr. Bellesiles
through the Newberry Library in Chicago.