"evidence of falsification"

"egregious misrepresentation"

"exaggeration of data"

"[H]is scholarly integrity is seriously in question"

These aren't exactly ringing endorsements of Michael Bellesiles' award winning book which is still lauded by gun control advocates. Bellesile's book, "Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture" won the Bancroft Award, and was held up by gun grabbers as proof that guns were not a large part of American culture on the frontier.

However, Bellesiles sources, which were primarily old probate records, were immediately criticized. Very few of the probate records matched the findings in his book, and some records he cited simply did not exist. (For instance, the San Francisco records Bellesiles cited that had actually been destroyed in 1906 earthquake.) When questioned, Bellesiles conveniently lost his notes, stating they were destroyed and then discarded when a records room at Emory flooded. Even that excuse didn't hold water, (pardon the pun) as the manifest of items lost in the flood didn't include Bellesiles' research notes. Hmm.

I'm not going to rehash the whole thing, but if you want to read more about it, Instapundit has been keeping a good journal.

Although it comes as a surprise, I am not at all sorry to see that Bellesiles was fired resigned in disgrace. I figured he'd get a slap on the wrist at most.