Guns

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="055d05a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Blithe Spirit</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Blithe Spirit"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Blithe Spirit"><U>Blithe Spirit</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id63.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="6/5 to 10/30, 2005"><U>6/5 to 10/30, 2005</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="7/23/06"><U>7/23/06</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id66.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="11/21/06"><U>11/21/06</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Quiet, please"><U>Quiet, please</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id62.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Wed. Journal columns"><U>Wed. Journal columns</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Moved 6405"><U>Moved 6-4-05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Addresses"><U>Addresses</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id59.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Blithely blog"><U>Blithely blog</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Loving Muslims"><U>Loving Muslims</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id50.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MayorDaley II"><U>MayorDaley II</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Chicago history"><U>Chicago history</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Political Animals"><U>Political Animals</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id45.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bono AIDS"><U>Bono & AIDS</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id44.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Enron etc."><U>Enron etc.</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id47.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Rape matters"><U>Rape matters</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="War with Iraq"><U>War with Iraq</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Preaching"><U>Preaching</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Womens issues"><U>Women's issues</U></A>   |   <B>Guns</B>   |   <A HREF="id38.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Worship"><U>Worship</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Language"><U>Language</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id51.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="NPR"><U>NPR</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id52.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Iraq war coverage"><U>Iraq war coverage</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id34.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Books Reviews"><U>Books & Reviews</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id49.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="New York, New York"><U>New York, New York</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Moved 12104"><U>Moved 12-1-04</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="056d2123.jpg"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Guns</I></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Courier" ><B>GARRY, WHERE ARE YOU? . . . </B></FONT>Garry Wills, forthcoming about papal sins and why he's a Catholic, was unavailable for comment on the historian Michael Bellesiles, whom he had commended for a gun-history book which turned out bogus.  The book, <I>Arming America</I> (Knopf, 2000), inaccurately stated that guns were rare in early U.S. history and thus (inaccurately) supported loose, non-gun-owner interpretation of the 2nd Amendment.</div> <bR> <div> Wills was one of 47 historians and law profs who wrote NRA president Charlton Heston in March, 2000, citing Bellesiles as cause for Moses to cease and desist his 2nd-amendment-based efforts at protecting gun ownership.  But alas, the book is "unprofessional and misleading," according to a scholars' panel that included one of the 47, and Bellesiles is out of a job, having resigned from the Emory U. faculty.  But double alas, only two of the 47 admit they were wrong,  Wills, whose <I>Why I Am a Catholic</I> was reviewed favorably (by me) in <I>The Phila. Inquirer</I>, was not one of them.</div> <bR> <div> Rather, he was one of the letter-signing scholars who "disappeared," reported <I>WSJ</I> writer Kimberley Strassel, even though he had (also) praised the Bellesiles book to the sky in that haven of properly left-style thinking <I>The NY Times</I> <I>Book Review</I>.  I for one find this puzzling to an extreme, since Garry is ever generous with opinion, even when not flogging a book.</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>