Defense Articles

STORIES THAT MIGHT never be broken if a single reporter had to spend days researching them are now being covered by dilettante swarms rather than diligent professionals. It’s a new form of journalism, reminiscent less of old-fashioned investigative reporting than of the decentralized “peer production” that generates open source software. If it had a slogan, it might be “We report, we decide.”

New York University law professor Yochai Benkler has argued that open source works because programming is a “granular” task–the job of coding a massive piece of software can be broken into many small pieces–and because the Internet allows the rapid collating and peer filtering of work done by thousands of dispersed individuals. Traditional programming requires a few coders to commit a lot of time and effort, for which they will reasonably expect to be paid. When the software’s source code is freely available, however, the big job can be done in small increments by a large pool of volunteers. The results are filtered for quality the same way, with superior pieces of coding copied and spread through the population.

Distributed journalism works similarly. Different lines of inquiry will occur to different people, who bring different kinds of knowledge to bear on the same topic. The ability to concatenate that information online–particularly via those motley commentary sites and open diaries called blogs–makes the information discovered by each available to all.

To see the process in action, consider the case of John R. Lott, author of More Guns, Less Crime, which argues that concealed-carry gun laws reduce crime. In 1999 the sociologist Otis Dudley Duncan questioned Lott’s claim that “if national surveys are correct, 98 percent of the time that people use guns defensively, they merely have to brandish a weapon to break off an attack.”

The major research on defensive gun use, Duncan objected, had shown firing rates ranging from 21 percent to over 6o percent. Lott replied that “national surveys” actually referred to his own heretofore unknown survey of 2,424 households. When Duncan pressed him for the survey data, Lott demurred, saying a hard drive crash had destroyed his data set and the original tally sheets had been lost. In fact, there seemed to be no record at all of the study, nor could Lott recall the names of any of the students who he said had worked on it. Some people began to suspect the study, which is tangential to Lott’s conclusions in More Guns, didn’t exist.

The controversy moved to an e-mail list for academics interested in gun issues. There it brewed until January 10,2003, when it was discovered and linked to by blogger Marie Gryphon. Dozens of blogs picked up the story, and Tim Lambert, one of Lott’s leading critics on the e-list, setup a weblog of his own.

Within weeks, articles on the controversy appeared in The Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, and other major outlets. Northwestern University law professor James Lindgren, who played a leading role in investigating both Lott and the disgraced gun historian Michael Bellesiles, notes that “at the parallel stage of the investigation into Bellesiles, he was getting a prize for his work.”

Why did the Lott story break so quickly? Part of the difference relates to how the two scandals were investigated. The initial heavy lifting in the Bellesiles case was done by amateur historian Clayton Cramer, later joined by Lindgren, who tried with little immediate success to interest professional historians in the problems he found with Bellesiles’ research. Only when a few committed investigators had uncovered clear proof of malfeasance did the wheels of the academy begin to turn. At that point, the mainstream media took notice.

With Lott, most of the information bloggers had when the story first leaked, including extensive interviews with many of the principals, was again owed to Lindgren’s efforts. Once it was released into the blogosphere, however, reporters could find it quickly on blogs. At the same time, the investigation became an open source affair.

The first round of dispersed investigation came when a Minnesota attorney named David Gross came forward to say he had been the subject of a survey that sounded like Lott’s. The Washington Times ran a brief story implying that the question about Lott’s survey was now closed.

But bloggers were more skeptical: Gross turned out to be a gun rights activist himself, with the group Concealed Carry Reform, NOW! Historian Thomas Spencer unearthed a letter to the Minneapolis Star Tribune in which Gross wrote that gun control advocates “dance on the graves of the innocent victims and glory in their spilled blood.” Another blogger, the pseudonymous Atrios, found news reports recounting how Gross had taken over the names of several gun control groups that had neglected to renew their corporate status with the state.

Of course, a gun activist would be the most likely to hear about the controversy and come forward. But skeptics continued to doubt Gross’ account, and some of Lott’s former defenders wrote that they wished for some further independent confirmation of his account. Lott, currently a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, has conducted a new survey, which he includes in his new book, The Bias Against Guns (Regnery).

A pilot program that features warning felons before their release from prison and probationers about gun possession has slashed the recidivism rate in Chicago.

Although the testing so far involves only a few felons and has been in effect for only two years, five-times fewer felons warned about the restriction on gun possession committed new crimes compared to felons who did not receive the warning.

The Illinois Department of Corrections, the Cook County Adult Probation Office, the Chicago Police Department, the Cook County prosecutor, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago conduct the gun-possession alert as part of a Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) program.

The state selected felons at random to attend the gun-alert meetings so that there was no specific profile that might skew the program.

The federal, state and local law enforcement officials meet with the probationers for at least an hour and discuss gun-possession laws and how prosecutors determine the charges to be placed when police arrest a felon with a gun.

The sessions also include personal history accounts from other felons that have been convicted of gun-possession.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois began the program in January 2003.

Of the felons receiving the warnings, only 3 percent have been arrested for new offenses compared to 22 percent for felons from the same areas that did not attend the gun-alert sessions.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the effect on the behavior of probationers and parolees came as a surprise because of the high level of compliance attained so far.

University of Chicago Law Professor Tracey Meares and doctoral candidate Andrew Papachristos conducted research for a PSF study that found the unexpected results of the gun-warning sessions.

The study found that the homicide rate dropped 40 percent in the gun-alert communities since the forums began in January 2003-the largest decline for any high-crime district in Chicago.

Another contributing factor to the homicide decline is the Chicago Police Department’s aggressive campaigns against street gangs over the same period.

The department has assigned Targeted Response Units and installed street surveillance cameras in high-crime areas. Outreach programs such as one called CeaseFire that sends ex-felons into the streets to talk to juveniles and young offenders are also at work in the same communities.

But the unique element in the arrest rate was the contrast between offenders that attended the PSN warning sessions and those that did not receive the alert.

Although law enforcement in Chicago has engaged in a public advertising campaign to warn about gun possession, the sessions held directly with probationers appear to have improved the results.

Hardin’s cousin by marriage, James Miller, known as “Killing Jim,” had requested legal assistance in a case involving armed altercations with Sheriff G.A. (Bud) Frazier. In two shooting incidents, Miller had survived being shot by Frazier, thanks to a steel plate insert placed by Miller in his clothing. Their feud, which began in 1891, eventually resulted in the death of Frazier, murdered by Miller in 1896.

Hardin had responded to requests from Miller to prosecute Frazer in court, having been shot by the latter in April and in December, 1894. Trial was scheduled for April of 1895, in El Paso; Frazer had been arrested that December. Tiring of the wait, Miller eventually killed Frazer.

Miller was known as “the most dangerous man that ever lived,” according to an acquaintance, Dee Harvey. In 1908, Miller would be the prime suspect in the murder of Pat Garrett, killer of Billy The Kid. In 1909 Miller was lynched, after he killed a rancher in Ada, Oklahoma.

Court records show John Wesley Hardin was carrying a Colt Lightning Model 1877, serial number 84304 and an Elgin watch, serial number 4069110, when he was shot and killed on August 19, 1895. The revolver and the watch had been presented to Hardin in appreciation for his legal efforts on behalf of Miller in his trial for murdering Frazer. That trial lasted from April 8 to 14, 1895, ending in the jury being deadlocked.

The Colt, (with a .38 caliber, 2 1/2″ barrel) is nickel-plated, with blued hammer, trigger and screws. The back-strap is hand-engraved: “J.B.M. TO J.W.H.” It wears mother-of-pearl grips.

The Lightning is recorded in Colt factory ledgers as shipped on July 16, 1891, to Hartley & Graham, New York City, with five like guns in the shipment.

The Colt is accompanied with a tooled leather holster, marked with a barely visible stamp of an El Paso maker. The hunting case pocket watch by Elgin is a 14 karat, gold-filled, lever set, inscribed on the front: “April/7th/1895.” The inscription on the top of the inside lid reads: “J.W. HARDIN/From/J.B .MILLER.” There is also a gold-plated brass chain, with a fob of a liberty head penny, with the date 1853 (the year of Hardin’s birth).

The set includes a mounted photograph of Miller and Hardin, likely at the time of the presentation of the revolver and watch. The photograph is marked: “Simpson/602 Main St./Ft. Worth, Tex.”

The original John W. Hardin, Esq. business card and, “The Life of John Wesley Hardin From the Original Manuscript, As Written by Himself” (1896) rounds out this rare and historically significant bit of Americana.

Our thanks to Greg Martin Auctions for supplying photos and information. Phone: (800) 509-1988; www.gmartin-auctions.com

Note: Property documented in inventory of Jon Wesley Hardin estate, recorded at the time of the outlow’s death in 1895. To quote: “1.38 Colt Pistol (84304), While handle./1 watch, Elgin, on movement (4069110)

Condition: Revolver excellent, with 75-80% finish remaining; some flaking on frame and cylinder, 75% blue on trigger and hammer. tiny nick on toe of left panel of pearl grips. Minor wear on holster.

Six years ago, Sotheby’s entered the online auction market. One hundred million dollars later, it stumbled out, bruised and beaten. While it didn’t work for the big gun, several startup specialty sites–and one powerhouse–are working to refine the online art auction game.

Surely, if any other company were to have a shot at online art auction success, it would be eBay. In the words of Lara Bridges, the company’s category manager for art and antiques, the San Jose, Calif.-based site can open up a showroom to 80 million people.

On a typical day, eBay has a quarter of a million pieces listed under “art” alone, (and another quarter million under “antiques”). What kinds of pieces are up for sale? A recent search revealed that 43 percent of the works of art on offer are prints and another 9 percent are posters. When asked about the median value of the pieces sold on eBay, Bridges said that while “it is difficult to say” there is “a huge number in the $5 to $20 range.” Yet, she said there is considerable activity all the way up to the $500 mark, and, she added, this range is “the sweet spot for dealers on eBay.” She wants galleries to view eBay as “a great place to increase liquidity,” and she may attend this month’s Artexpo show to investigate potential alliances.

The phrase “increased liquidity” reveals Bridges’ MBA background. She has also worked in marketing at Sotheby’s. Thus, she is in a unique place to comment on the ill-fated alliance Sotheby’s formed with eBay before closing its online auction division.

“We thought it was a great relationship from our [eBay’s] end, but it was difficult for Sotheby’s,” she said. Part of the reason may have been the discrepancy between the levels of material typically offered on the two sites. According to an analyst’s estimates, at the time the alliance was announced, the average eBay sale was approximately $60, while Sothebys.com was 20 times higher.

Different Strokes

So, is the eBay model now the only option for auctioning fine art online? First of all, eBay does seem to have fought off its mega rivals, Amazon and Yahoo, at least in the art field. Recent searches of art offerings on these two sites yielded relatively few listings. Furthermore, Amazon once committed an art world faux pas by allowing someone to list a piece of garage-sale-caliber art for $100,000. This is one of the perils of the company’s hands-off approach there is no screening and no editorializing–a painting listing equals a toner cartridge listing equals a house listing.

Such an attitude does not find favor with much of the art world. In the words of Steve Moses, president of fineart.com, a multi-purpose art site with an auction component, “One of the beautiful things about art is that it is not a commodity item.” Thus, a number of online auction sites have sprung up catering specifically to the needs of the art market, and they have tried to set themselves apart from eBay in a number of ways.

First of all, the founders of these sites want to show respect for the works of art. In the words of Kip Walraven, president of online auction site Fine Arts Bid (www.fineartsbid.com), his consignors fear “getting lost ha the mix” on eBay. That is an important concern for some of his sellers, he said, most of whom used to be associated with Sothebys.com. For example, search eBay for the word “oil,” and the hit list may put a 1914 Chagall painting cheek by jowl with a quart of Pennzoil. He added that “you will get nickel-and-dimed if you list free works with eBay.” He fears that the mentality of its typical buyer would be incompatible with that of the typical art vendor.

Specialist art auction sites that have cropped up seem to focus only on highly desirable works. iGavel founder Lark Mason (yet another Sotheby’s veteran) declared that his firm’s watchword is “selectivity.” At Sothebys.com, he worked with the dealer associates who consigned pieces for sale. In time, he recognized that that they were all too often simply reoffering goods that they themselves had previously purchased at auction. They were just recycling the dead stock which had failed to sell in their galleries. He now prefers to work with small brick-and-mortar auction houses and other consignment centers. The goal is to bring to the Internet pieces that have been sitting untouched “in grandma’s attic.”

Not only should the works offered on online auction sites be fresh to the market, but, according to Moses, they should be by artists with name recognition. “Unknown artists do not fare well at auction,” he said, and Mason added that this is not even a proper venue for up-and-coming painters. “Most Contemporary art does not fare well on the resale market,” he said. “It does not have much of a track record.”

Name recognition goes hand-in-hand with premium pricing, and it is therefore unsurprising that online fine art auction sites have targeted mid- to high-value items.

Walraven revealed that he see Fine Arts Bid’s target price range as $500 to $3,000. According to Robert Rogal, director of Long Island City, N.Y.-based Ro Gallery, which sells art online through its site, Rogallery.com, eBay loses ground to the specialist sites because it focuses too much on lower-priced items. He thinks eBay should have a $500-and-up department in order to lend it more exclusivity. When his firm holds Internet auctions, the average price per item is $1,000.

It is becoming ever more important for the photo experts at the top auction houses to persuade important collectors to consign top-flight collections. Last year, in a major embarrassment for Sotheby’s and Christie’s, the upstart Phillips won the right to sell the Seagram’s collection and subsequently walked off with the season’s top honors. This season, Sotheby’s struck gold with two major single-owner sales of its own.

Sotheby’s strikes gold while Christie’s sales are off.

On April 27, Sotheby’s held a sale entitled “Important Photographs from a Private Collection.” Of significance is the fact that it held the sale on that night in April, perhaps trying to emulate the powerful Impressionist and Modern paintings department. (Their top sales are ticket-only evening events comparable to glitzy Hollywood movie openings.) When the auction houses try to woo collectors away from each other, the promise of such an over-the-top production is a powerful lure.

Evidently, the ploy worked. It lured a standing-room only crowd that bid very aggressively–so aggressively, in fact, that nine out of every 10 pieces sold over-estimate.

Each and every one of the 43 pieces sold, and the auction brought in $3.9 million, 60 percent more than the estimate. The top lot at the sale was the disquieting Diane Arbus masterpiece, “Identical Twins (Cathleen and Colleen), Roselle, N.J.”

“Disquieting” might be an understatement; according to Sotheby’s, it served “as inspiration for the recurring motif of twin girls that appears throughout Stanley Kubrick’s film, ‘The Shining.’” Originally expected to bring $250,000 to $350,000, it ultimately sold to an anonymous private collector for $478,400, a new auction record for Arbus.

Another record was set when Walker Evans’ “Negro Barbershop Interior, Atlanta,” sold to the Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York for $198,400. This price is somewhat baffling, as this very work had sold just two years earlier at Sotheby’s for only $95,600. This represents a 100 percent increase in two years–quite an enviable return on investment. The last of the three records set that night was for Robert Frank, when an image of his 1956 photograph “Chicago” realized $131,200; more than four times its high estimate of $30,000.

The second single-owner sale held at Sotheby’s this season carried the following unwieldy title, “The Gordon L. Bennett Collection of Carleton Watkins ‘New Series’ Photographs of Yosemite.” The set is remarkable in that it comprises 40 125-year-old mammoth photographs in “superb condition.”

In fact, finding any Watkins pieces at all is difficult, according to the head of Sotheby’s photographs department, Denise Bethel. “He lost his life’s work twice,” says Bethel. Once, when he was forced to turn over his entire stock of negatives to I. W. Taber, a rival photographic publisher, and then when the fires following the San Francisco earthquake destroyed his ‘New Series’ views.”

The 40 photographs were purchased by Gordon Bennett in a rare book store in San Francisco in 1967. He found them hidden on the store’s bottom shelves. One might hope that the shop’s owner, who had priced them at $25 each, or less, is not around to read that the set brought $2 million, far exceeding its high estimate of $1,406,000. The top lot was “Aggasiz Rock and the Yosemite Falls, From Union Point,” which sold to the Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco for a record price of $310,400.

As for the main mixed-owners auction, the results were somewhat less extraordinary.

The sale totaled $2,795,200, (below the high estimate of $2.9 million), and approximately 20 percent of the 179 works on offer went unsold. Frankly, this may be a more accurate gauge of the general state of the photo market. It seems that when exceptional collections appear, so do exceptional buyers, which explains the phenomenal success of the two Sotheby sales. For those in the real world trying to sell typical items, the reception is not quite as enthusiastic.

Four works in the sale broke the $100,000 mark, and, interestingly, three of them were taken by the lovers Tina Modotti and Edward Weston. The one Modotti, “Bandolier, Corn, and Guitar,” which sold for $120,000, is a politically charged piece intended to evoke thoughts of the Mexican revolution. The other two $100,000-plus pieces, still lifes by Weston, are far less radical: “Pepper (3P)” (which also brought $120,000) and “Shells” (which brought the highest price at the sale, $232,000).

It is, however, a tribute to Weston’s genius that, at one time, he could make even a still life appear revolutionary. When the arts journal “Forma” published Weston’ still life of a toilet bowl entitled “Excusado,” the Mexican government was so incensed that it ceased funding the publication, causing it to close down. In general, Weston featured quite prominently this season. In all, he was responsible for more than $900,000 of the Sotheby’s total this spring. Furthermore, over at Christie’s, four of this works earned spots in the top 10. Yet, even their success could not keep Christie’s from being trounced this season.

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How are your long-gun sales? Lackluster? Okay? Could be better?

According to top gun dealers, they should be robust.

“Our long gun sales are as strong as ever,” said Lee Schmidt, co-owner of Midwestern Shooters Supply in Lomira, Wis. “There are always dips and plateaus in the market but the customers are still out there. They still have money. The trick is to get them into your store to spend it!”

While rifle and shotgun manufacturing has had its ups and downs over the past few years, the picture is not all doom and gloom. In 1999, there were 1,569,685 rifles made. You have to go back to 1982 when 1,622,890 were manufactured to find a higher number. In shotguns, 1,106,995 were made in 1999, down from a high of 1,254,926 in 1994. Yet the 1999 number still outdistances all other years going back to 1980.

That’s a lot of rifles and shotguns. And someone is buying them.

“We sold 500 or 600 Leupold scopes last year, so that tells you the market is still there,” said Schmidt, who has been in business for 30 years. “Here in the Midwest, hunting is natural and our customers participate to the fullest. Like anything, though, if you don’t encourage it, your customer base can get stale. By keeping interest high with new products, on-going sales and a knowledgeable staff, customers stay excited and tend to return, again and again, to see what’s new.”

Gary Williams, product development manager for Leupold, offers an interesting fact about Leupold’s products that provides a reading on the current market.

“We’ve been averaging over 1,000 catalog downloads a month from our Website. Not only does that tell us there is a high level of interest in our products, but it says the market is still strong. We’re having a very good year and last year was also memorable,” Williams said.

Package deals, such as Remington’s Model 710 rifle and scope combo, which retails at about $400, offer price-point shopping and value for customers. Leupold is offering their VX-I series, Vari-XII scope at about $200 retail! These aggressively priced new products get solid play in the popular firearms press, and are heavily advertised by manufacturers.

After reading about them, many customers who are not heavily into the shooting sports are more comfortable spending this kind of money on simple products that will get them into the “game.”

Market Trends

“One of my responsibilities is to monitor customer service inquiries,” said Williams, of Leupold. “I’m constantly amazed at how quickly we get requests for information about the correct scope to mount on new rifles and shotguns, especially after the introduction of new calibers, like the (Winchester) .270 and 7mm Short Magnums.”

The wave of new calibers has sparked a corresponding demand by the public. The short-action calibers demanded a new generation of lightweight, powerful rifles. Together, they seem to be irresistible to the shooters and hunters.

The introduction of a legion of new rifles and shotguns, such as Adco’s Diamond Brand Shotguns; Henry’s Golden Boy .22; Beretta’s Model 391 Xtrema; Ruger’s Gold Label Side-by-Side; Weatherby’s Mark V Super Big Game Master; Charles Daly’s Field-Grade rifles; Remington’s Model Seven Short Action Magnum; Dan Wesson’s Coyote Classic bolt gun; and Marlin’s CBC (Cowboy Competition) in .38 Special, are all keeping dealers’ doors swinging.

“The new rifles and calibers are definitely hot and buyers are very well “informed about them,” Schmidt said. “We often have customers walk into the store with a printout under their arm with information from a manufacturer’s Website. Along with being informed, our customers are not afraid to spend money on quality. From Kolpin, Browning and Boyt cases to other products, they want quality.”

More and more dealers are limiting their long-gun inventories, often specializing in one or two brands. This makes it easier to have the product on hand when the customer walks in the door. Dealers also are realizing they are not in competition with the big-box marts. They’re building inventories and offering services not available at the marts. This trend is growing and, to the surprise of many dealers, their businesses are flourishing because the limited selection and lack of knowledgeable customer service at the marts frustrates customers.

Turkey hunting continues to grow, and the” guns and gear associated with it are more varied then ever.

“Turkey ‘packages’ are a good idea. Take a shotgun, add a quality scope or red dot sight, and display them with a call, camo and quality turkey ammo. It gets customers thinking, and can easily lead to questions — and sales,” said Matt Moxness, dealer services manager for ATK (formerly Blount SEG).

Accessories, Accessories

“Don’t ask a customer if he needs ammo for that new rifle or shotgun. Ask him, ‘How many boxes do you need?’” said Mike Jordan of Howard Communications, and former media relations manager for Winchester Ammunition. “When your customer buys a shotgun, take a moment to show what’s new in shotgun ammunition. They may not realize some of the performance available with today’s loads.

Developed to provide electrical engineers and computer scientists with up-to-date information, this reference work covers the spectrum of micro-electronic filter designs. Stressing fundamental theory, Chen (emeritus, electrical engineering and computer science, U. of Illinois at Chicago) and collaborators focus on the key concepts, models, and equations that enable the design engineer to analyze, design, and predict the behavior of large-scale systems employing passive, active, or digital filters. Twenty-five chapters cover approximation, frequency transformations, sensitivity and selectivity, passive immittances and positive-real functions, passive cascade synthesis, two-port synthesis by ladder development, resistively terminated networks, broadband matching networks, and a broad range of filters. Extensive development of theory and details of proofs have been omitted, but concise reviews of theories, principles, and mathematics are included for some subject areas.

A brochure has been released by Luber-finer, a manufacturer of heavy-duty filtration products for on- and off-highway applications, focusing on heavy-duty fuel filters including the TotalTec fuel filter. The brochure has an ordering chart separated by engine make, thread size, absolute micron rating and fuel filter type.