First Person account of UCI meeting (#4269)
by Randall N. Herrst, J.D. on November 1, 2002 at 4:50 AM

Hi

First, I would like to thank Prof. Sternstein for the excellent article on Wiener's attempted defense of Bellesiles.

Second, I admit that I do not have any degree in History, but it is one of my favorite topics.

Third, I proudly state that I am a self-defense activist.

Let me tell you what really happened at the UCI meeting where Bellesiles was supposed to discuss his book.

I was one of the "four unusually large men" who supposedly came to intimidate Bellesiles or disrupt his presentation, as Wiener clearly implied. Wiener portrayed a dramatic, intimidating entryway presence (emotionally analogous to Gov. Wallace's blocking the entry of a segregated school) by the "four unusually large men", apparently to frighten people away from the event. Wiener claimed, "People coming to the talk were startled, and some were a little frightened, but Bellesiles said calmly, 'Ah, so they did come.'" Wow! Bellesiles must be really brave to face down those monstrous bullies, right? And he had the courage to show up, even knowing that huge, violent thugs were hounding his every move!

As one who knew 5 of the 8 firearms owners prior to the meeting, and the one who printed the one page flyer (which was not titled "Bellesiles is a LIAR!"), I can provdie you with some personal information on the people who attended. Wiener's description of "four unusually large men" is obviously meant to evoke an image of four, young, tough football linemen, each 6' 5" tall, weighing 290-360 pounds, and replete with bulging muscles. Naturally, they must be mindless redneck thugs with a cumulative I.Q. approximating room temperature. Their purpose could only have been to intimidate or disrupt, since none of them could be a college graduate, or even literate. They didn't "look like faculty members or even history grad students."

"Unusually Large Man #1" is 6'2" tall, 215 pounds, slightly overweight and out of shape. He is approximately 50 years old, a respected millionaire businessman, and is often mistaken for a professor due to his demeanor and appearance. He was one who I did not know prior to the event, but I did get his contact info afterwards. He was not one of the people at the two entryways, so his "frighten away" value was minimal. He just took one of the flyers and sat at the back of the room, and I don't recall him saying a word during the entire meeting. He certainly did nothing loud, violent, or threatening.

"Unusually large man #2" is 6'2" tall and 300 pounds, but he looks more like a roly-poly Santa Claus than a tough football lineman. I doubt that anyone would be physically intimidated. He is approximately 50 years old, an author of many books and articles, and the owner of a publishing company. He did not appear at either of the entrances, so his intimidation value was also non-existent. He was the one who asked 2 or 3 questions, based on his real-world experiences with non-probated firearms transfers. His questions were directed at the issues, with no attempt to threaten Bellesiles.

"Unusually large man #3" was me, 51 years old, 5'8" tall and 225 pounds, and definitely overweight rather than ultra-muscular. I was supervising the two people who were handing out flyers at the two entrances, but I am certain that no one would view my appearance or behavior as threatening. In addition to my normally peaceful nature, I suffered a back injury 2 years ago, which makes the very concept of physical fighting impractical. I have a Juris Doctor degree and I have acted as a political consultant to several political candidates. I was the one who called a few friends and organized the flyer handout. I would not allow any of my friends to even attempt to intimidate anyone trying to enter the classroom; but that precaution wasn't even necessary, since my friends are not the ignorant rednecks portrayed by Wiener.

"Unusually large man #4" at the entrance or in the room dis not exist as far as I could see. There were two other flyer distributors at the door, but one of them was 5'6" tall and 180 pounds, which is practically the opposite of Wiener's description. He is an independent businessman in the production machinery business and he is 48 years old and a non-skinhead.

Another flyer distributor is 5'11" tall and 180 pounds, 60+ years old, and resembles your favorite uncle. He is now retired, but he worked in the military and commercial nuclear industries for 40 years and attained secret clearances so high that they won't even tell the public the designations of those clearance categories. Not exactly an irresponsible, violent skinhead.

And if the purpose of our appearance was to intimidate or disrupt or riot, why do you suppose "Unusually large man #2" brought his 75 year old mother to attend the lecture? For the intellectual exchange or because she would be a powerful ally in a brawl? Of course, Wiener didn't mention her presence, even though it was obvious that she was accompanying "Unusually large man #2". Incidentally, she is a gentle and cultured soul who loves classical music and whose deceased husband was a concert violinist.

Wiener chose to denigrate all of us as being of a lesser caste than professors or grad students, yet it should be obvious that these people are solid citizens with real accomplishments.

There were a couple other firearms owners who attended the meeting, but they asked no questions during the meeting, and they did nothing to harass or heckle. They simply wanted to see if Bellesiles were better informed in person than he appeared to be in the media. Bellesiles' pathetic lecture, wherein he spent most of the time talking about his "persecution", convinced them that Bellesiles was as incompetent and misinformed as they had already seen.

You might also wonder about Wiener's description of somebody wearing a "flak jacket". I am something of an expert in the field of military history and technology, and I can assure you that I saw no such clothing. If anyone was wearing such clothing, they must have kept a very low profile during the meeting, which essentially negates the intimidation potential, doesn't it? I recall that "Unusually large man #2" was wearing a dark colored jacket, which could be maliciously interpreted as having a slight military theme. It seems that Wiener felt that such a normal jacket on a large, overweight man could be portrayed as threatening, especially if he described it in military terms.

You might also like to know about the "Unusually large man" with the "shaved head". I am the one Wiener identified as having a "shaved head", which of course can only be intended to evoke frightening images of "young, tough, violent, neo-Nazi, skinhead gang members". For the record, I do not shave my head, but I do suffer from alopecia, which causes a substantial loss of hair. My head actually has a few patches of hair, but the overall effect is rather unsightly, so I ALWAYS wear a full-brim golf/hiking hat in public. Wiener failed to mention the hat, since it did not fit his political agenda.

Wiener stated that the flyer was titled "The Lies of Michael Bellesiles", which might lead you to believe that it was an ad hominem attack. There is a flyer that I printed from my computer and I still have the file. The actual title is, "IS BELLESILES TRYING TO DECEIVE YOU? DECIDE FOR YOURSELF!" I think that this is quite different in approach, since it asks you to go to some linked web sites (including Cramer's) and use that information to evaluate the information that the attendees receive from Bellesiles. Is that not in the spirit of honest intellectual inquiry? My purpose in printing and distributing the flyer was to let the attendees know that there was another side to the issue. Yes, I stated that Bellesiles was engaging in academic dishonesty, but I was not wrong, just ahead of the curve.

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Conclusion

Regarding those incidents with which I am personally familiar, Prof. Wiener has proven to be no more accurate and has shown no more integrity than Bellesiles.