September 21, 2001

Historian's Book on Colonial-Era Gun Ownership Is Challenged

By ELIZABETH FARRELL

SHOOTING FROM THE HIP? A historian's heralded book arguing that gun ownership wasn't as pervasive in colonial America as previously assumed has come under new attack from critics, who say it is based on a flawed, possibly even distorted, interpretation of historical records.

Michael A. Bellesiles, a professor of history at Emory University, published Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture (Alfred A. Knopf) last fall to acclaim in many quarters. The book presented

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