To the nines

National Review, March 10, 2008 by Mary O'Connell

We were troubled by the allegation in your recent article ("The Left Fires a Counter-Volley," February 25) that the Joyce Foundation has made "ethically questionable" questionable" grants in the area of gun violence. You cite as an example "a $900,000 donation to the gun-control panel of the National Academy of Sciences." You have the amount wrong: Our grant to support the National Academy study on firearms and violence was not $900,000 but $109,000, a piece of a much larger funding picture; other grants came from the National Institute of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the Packard Foundation. The last two are among the dozens of foundations that support research on critical issues by the National Academy each year.

Mary O'Connell

The Joyce Foundation

Chicago, Ill.