The AHA Council passed the following resolution at its June 16-17, 2001, meeting.

In response to recent harassment of Michael A. Bellesiles for his recent work Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture, in conjunction with the statement made by the Council of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, the Council of the AHA approved the following statement in support of academic freedom:

Although it is appropriate to subject all scholarly work to criticism and to evaluate that work's arguments and its sources, the Council of the American Historical Association considers personal attacks upon or harassment of an author, as we have seen directed at Michael A. Bellesiles following publication of Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture, to be inappropriate and damaging to a tradition of free exchange of ideas and the advancement of our knowledge of the past.