News Release
Second Amendment Foundation , 12500 NE 10th Place, Bellevue, WA 98005

For Immediate Release: 10/28/02
Contact: Alan Gottlieb (425) 454-7012

SAF DEMANDS REVOCATION OF BANCROFT AWARD FROM DISCREDITED AUTHOR

BELLEVUE, WA - The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) today called upon Columbia University to immediately revoke the Bancroft Prize from author Michael Bellesiles for his discredited book, Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture. Columbia University has received SAF's revocation request.

"Along with the prize, Professor Bellesiles should be required to return the $4,000 cash award that came with it," said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb. "Allowing such a fraudulent work to be awarded at all harms other Bancroft prize winners as the lack of review for academic standards is now obvious to everyone. Continuing to let Bellesiles keep the award will further tarnish Columbia and the Bancroft Award as no defense remains for his actions."

Bellesiles resigned from Emory University Friday, Oct. 25, more than three months after an investigative committee found serious problems with his research. Bellesiles' book was hailed by gun control groups and anti-gunners in the press. However, almost from the outset, Arming America was questioned, then debunked, by historians and scholars (including many supporting gun control), and reporters for at least three newspapers.

"The committee found evidence of falsification in Bellesiles' research," Gottlieb noted. "The preponderance of evidence suggests the book, which attempted to re-write the history of firearms ownership in America, was a monumental fraud. Columbia University needs to protect its reputation and that of the Bancroft Prize by rescinding it from Professor Bellesiles."

SAF Public Affairs Director Dave LaCourse was equally insistent. "Arming America has become a literary scandal, not deserving of the Bancroft Prize," he stated. "It certainly never deserved all the applause it received from anti-gunners when it was first published, and it is remarkable how silent those same people are, now that the book's serious flaws have been revealed.

"Equally troubling," LaCourse continued, "was the use of Bellesiles' bogus 'research' in numerous anti-gun legal briefs in the Emerson case, which found that the Second Amendment is, in fact, an individual right."

The Bancroft Prize is one of the most distinguished awards in the field of American history. Columbia University awards it annually to authors who publish works of "exceptional merit and distinction." Bellesiles received the award in April 2001, and within months, an investigation was launched into allegations of academic misconduct.

LaCourse noted that SAF maintains a complete account of the Arming America scandal on its website at: http://www.saf.org/pub/rkba/general/GunsInEarlyAmerica.htm

The Second Amendment Foundation is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners. Current projects include several concealed carry lawsuits, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers & an amicus brief & fund for the Emerson case holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.