Clayton Cramer
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Clayton E. Cramer is a historian, author, and software engineer. He has a master's in history from Sonoma State University. He played an important early role in demonstrating that the book Arming America by Michael A. Bellesiles was based on fraudulent research; he has sometimes been called Bellesiles' "most persistent critic". His work was cited in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals' United States v. Emerson decision. He currently resides in Boise, Idaho, USA.
In the spring of 2008, Cramer ran for the Republican nomination for District 22 of the Idaho State Senate.[1] He has suggested that he has designs on reentering politics at a later date.
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[edit] Arming America controversy
In 1996, while working on his master's thesis, Cramer read a paper by Bellesiles on early gun laws, published in the Journal of American History. This paper formed a basis for Bellesiles' later book, Arming America. Cramer's master's thesis "examined the development of concealed weapon laws in the early Republic",[1] and he was struck by how the paper contradicted his own knowledge of gun availability in early America. However, at the time, Cramer attributed the contradiction to Bellesiles having picked differing sources from those that Cramer himself knew well.
Cramer was later sent an early review copy of Michael A. Bellesiles' book Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture. Upon reading it, Cramer immediately noted significant discrepancies with what he knew of American history, particularly during the Revolutionary War period. He again found significant differences from what he knew of history, and began checking facts. He immediately discovered that many of Bellesiles' citations and quotes did not match the historical record. "I sat down with a list of bizarre, amazing claims that Bellesiles had made, and started chasing down the citations at Sonoma State University’s library. I found quotations of out of context that completely reversed the author’s original intent. I found dates changed. I found the text of statutes changed — and the changes completely reversed the meaning of the law. It took me twelve hours of hunting before I found a citation that was completely correct."[2]
Cramer met resistance from journal editors and other historians, but continued his allegations of fraud against Bellesiles' scholarship. Other historians, including James Lindgren of Northwestern University, joined in, and in the end, Bellesiles' Bancroft Prize was revoked. Bellesiles resigned his professorship at Emory University in 2002.
[edit] Publications
Cramer, Clayton (2007). Armed America: The Remarkable Story of How and Why Guns Became as American as Apple Pie. Nashville, Tenn.: Nelson Current,. ISBN 1-595-55069-0.
Cramer, Clayton (1997). Black Demographic Data, 1790-1860: A Sourcebook. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30243-X.
Cramer, Clayton (1990). By the Dim and Flaring Lamps: The Civil War Diary of Samuel McIlvaine. Monroe, N.Y.: Library Research Associates. ISBN 0-912526-46-7.
Cramer, Clayton (1999). Concealed Weapon Laws of the Early Republic: Dueling, Southern Violence, and Moral Reform. Westport, Conn.: Praeger. ISBN 0-275-96615-1.
Cramer, Clayton (January, 2001), “Confiscating Guns From America’s Past”, Ideas on Liberty 51 (1): 23-27, ISSN 1542-0698, <http://www.fee.org/publications/the-freeman/article.asp?aid=2644>. Retrieved on 13 August 2007
Cramer, Clayton (Winter, 1993-94), “Ethical Problems of Mass Murder Coverage in the Mass Media”, Journal of Mass Media Ethics 9 (1): 26-42, ISSN 0890-0523, doi:10.1207/s15327728jmme0901_3, <http://www.claytoncramer.com/JMME2.htm>. Retrieved on 13 August 2007
Cramer, Clayton (1995). Firing Back: A Clear, Simple Guide to Defending your Constitutional Right to Bear Arms. Iola, WI: Krause Publications. ISBN 0-87341-344-X.
Cramer, Clayton (1994). For the defense of themselves and the state : the original intent and judicial interpretation of the right to keep and bear arms. Westport, Conn.: Praeger. ISBN 0-275-94913-3.
Cramer, Clayton (Winter, 1995), “The Racist Roots of Gun Control”, Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy 42 (2): 17-25, ISSN 1055-8942, <http://www.lizmichael.com/racistro.htm>. Retrieved on 13 August 2007
Cramer, Clayton & Kopel, David B. (Spring, 1995), “Shall Issue: The New Wave of Concealed Handgun Permit Laws”, Tennessee Law Review 62 (3): 679-757, ISSN 0040-3288, <http://www.claytoncramer.com/shall-issue.html>. Retrieved on 13 August 2007
Cramer, Clayton (September 23-24, 2000), “Shots in the Dark”, National Review Online, ISSN 0028-0038, <http://www.nationalreview.com/weekend/books/books-cramer092300.shtml>. Retrieved on 13 August 2007
Cramer, Clayton; Kopel, David B. & Hattrup, Scott G. (Fall, 1995), “A Tale of Three Cities: The Right to Bear Arms in State Supreme Courts”, Temple Law Review 68 (3): 1178-1241, ISSN 0899-8086, <http://www.davekopel.org/2A/LawRev/ThreeCities.htm>
Cramer, Clayton, “Why Footnotes Matter: Checking Arming America's Claims”, Plagiary 1 (11): 1-31, ISSN 1559-3096, <http://www.plagiary.org/why-footnotes-matter.pdf>. Retrieved on 13 August 2007
[edit] References
- ^ Cramer's State Senate Campaign website
- ^ What Clayton Cramer Saw and (Nearly) Everyone Else Missed, History News Network. Article discusses the Bellesiles Arming America controversy
