Where Trusting Liars Gets You

A few years back, the 9th Circuit ruled against the Second Amendment protecting an individual right, relying on work by a then rising star of antigun historical research.  When it was pointed out to the court that Bellesiles was in a tailspin for fraud, they removed the reference to Bellesiles, but left a bogus misquote from him in the decision. I was revisiting this issue for a review of Pamela Haag's 2015 repackaging of Bellesiles, The Gunning of America: Business and the Making of American Gun Culture, and I noticed that Bellesiles not only quoted out of context Washington's letter to John Adams, but the letter was to James Madison!  Not only a false quote, but failing even to get he recipient right.