John Quiggin comments on this Gun Control Australia press release attacking John Whitley (see also Eugene Volokh's comments). Ditto on Quiggin's Voltaire/JS Mill allusions, but I think everybody is paying too much attention to this. I believe that they may have made their attack on academic freedom just to generate some publicity and controversy. You can read Whitley's response to them here---note that he ignores that part of the press release.
Quiggin also writes:
Sadly for Whitley, I think anyone associated with John Lott is going to have a hard time getting ARC money or anything else that involves research cred. Lott's disgraceful antics have been particularly damaging to his co-authors, including Whitley
Yes, Lott's name isn't even on the Stanford Law Review paper any more, so Plassmann and Whitley have been left with the responsibility for the coding errors in that paper. And despite months going by they have not addressed this problem. It is sad, and it is bad for Whitley's career.