Defending the Defenseless

45 Superman has informed me that Michael Bellesiles is coming out w/ a new book about violence in the late 19th Century.

I won't critique this current book, I hope that he's seen the light on proper research, but what's telling is that even his defenders can't get the facts straight:

"Michael Bellesiles is perhaps most famous as the target of an infamous "swiftboating" campaign by the National Rifle Association, following the publication of his Bancroft Prize-winning book Arming America"

IIRC, the NRA had nothing to do w/ the initial discoveries and the people involved state that directly:

anyone who knows my politics would never associate me with the National Rifle Association."

So this is a typical case of the belief that anything and everything that has to do w/ a pro-gun message (or anti anti-gun) is funded and organized by the NRA( just like the claims that the Zumbo affair was initiated by the NRA.) and therefore can be dismissed out of hand.

So much easier than relying on facts and evidence.

More at Volokh, SIH, Saysuncle.