For those of you who may never have heard of the case, Bellesiles was a "noted" historian who published a book called, "Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture," which stated that throughout most of American history, few people actually owed guns, and the "popular image" of privately-owned firearms was a creation of the NRA. The book was later proven to be a complete fraud, but it's effects continue to haunt us.
Here is a link to an MP-3 file, where oral arguements are presented befor the Illinois Supreme Court for concealed carry. About 1/3 of the way through (sorry, don't have a time hack), one of the justices points out that historically, most people didn't have handguns, and that only the rich carried them for dueling and such.
As disappointing as the oral arguements sound at this point, this same judge later really reams an attornery who makes one weak arguement after another, and she's later joined by another judge. She actually seems to argue the 2nd Amendment better than any of the attornies.
At any rate, if you enjoy this sort of debate, this file is great.
Here's the link to the court arguements:
http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/tmp/IV1218EP.mp3
Here's a link to the Wiki article on Bellesiles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bellesiles
- - - Yoda
Here is a link to an MP-3 file, where oral arguements are presented befor the Illinois Supreme Court for concealed carry. About 1/3 of the way through (sorry, don't have a time hack), one of the justices points out that historically, most people didn't have handguns, and that only the rich carried them for dueling and such.
As disappointing as the oral arguements sound at this point, this same judge later really reams an attornery who makes one weak arguement after another, and she's later joined by another judge. She actually seems to argue the 2nd Amendment better than any of the attornies.
At any rate, if you enjoy this sort of debate, this file is great.
Here's the link to the court arguements:
http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/tmp/IV1218EP.mp3
Here's a link to the Wiki article on Bellesiles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bellesiles
- - - Yoda