BELLESILES UPDATE: Still more problems with the evidence Bellesiles claims to have relied on:

The documents in question are Vermont court records from the late 18th century. The key passage appears on page 353 of “Arming America”: “During Vermont’s frontier period, from 1760 to 1790, there were five reported murders (excluding those deaths in the American Revolution), and three of those were politically motivated.” The endnote for this finding refers the reader to Superior Court records at the county courthouse in Rutland, Vermont. But as Ohio State University historian Randolph Roth has pointed out (and the court clerk in Rutland has confirmed), the volumes for 1782 to 1790 are not in the Rutland court’s holdings. Furthermore, the Superior Court did not exist before 1778, when Vermont became a state, so it has no records for the period 1760 to 1777.

UPDATE: This isn’t quite right. Vermont became an “independent republic” in 1777, but didn’t become an actual state until later. Thanks to reader Steve White for pointing that out. I should have noticed it myself.