by Douglas Mailly
dmmh@intac.com

Thursday afternoon I attended the Columbia College Conservative Club's panel discussion of Bellesile's "Arming America".

The panelists were Stephen Halbrook, John Lott and Clayton Cramer, and it was superb! Each speaker took a different tack.

Clayton pointed out the obvious, demonstrable inconsistencies between Bellesile's footnotes and the primary sources to which those footnotes refer. He even pointed out discrepancies between Bellesile's current book and that same author's past work! Lott's focus was more contemporary, looking at the big picture of gun ownership and use today, pointing out the fallacies behind so many of the popular factoids used by the anti's. Halbrook returned to the historical perspective, talking about the origin of the Bill of Rights in general and the 2nd Amendment in particular, sprinkling his talk with some historical observations as well.

The talk was lightly attended, probably due to the lack of advance notice, the mid-week afternoon timing, but also the fact that the University (so I am told) would not publicize the event. NO ONE from the university history department was present. The talks were taped; I don't know if transcripts or copies of the tapes will be available. I heard some talk of a CNN or C-Span broadcast, but I do not know if this is legit. I will try to keep you informed. 

P.S. At the end of the talk I gave a donation to the CCCC, and would urge all of you to do the same. They did a great job, bringing these three fine men right into the belly of the beast. However trite the phrase may be, it is true that our children are our future. These young men and women, though not children, are indeed our future. I see little sense in supporting unprincipled, spineless individuals and organizations when there are people such as these, well-positioned so as to have great ultimate effect, in want of resources. I also see little sense in pouring money into purchasing arms (however desirable they may be) because those will, unless people such as these prevail, only end up being confiscated. Win this fight today and we can avoid a much uglier fight in the future.