Ed Shultz of S&W on interview last night.

F

frye

New member
I'm sure that most people missed this interview, as it was on PBS's News Hour early yesterday evening. Joining him was a representative from the American Shooting Sports Council and a representative from the Center to Prevent Hangun Violence.

I tell you, it was incredible. Shultz was VERY uncomfortable, mainly because the fella from CPHV was buddying up to him at the same time he was saying things like: "We are glad that a responsible gun manufacturer has finally come forward to accept responsibility for this nations epidemic of gun violence."

Shultz kept trying to distance himself from these type of statements, but you could tell he was somewhat muted by his own actions. The guy from the ASSC repudiated both S&W's actions and the statements and claims of the CPHV. Shultz appeared defeated and bewildered, and I think it may have crossed his mind that he had made a huge mistake.

Especially when the guy from the CPHV kept saying, "This is just the first step, we have to have much more".

The only time Shultz could actually bring himself to contradict the CPHV guy's statements directly was when they claimed that S&W would give the government control of other manufacturer's distribution policy by controlling the dealers.

Shultz said that wasn't true.

The CPHV rep said something to the effect of, "Well, they have to comply with those agreements if they want to sell S&W products".

He was right. Shultz has handed control of his company, along with every dealer who wants to sell S&W products, to the administration and the anti-gun organizations that support it.

I am going to call my local gun dealers and tell them not to deal in S&W products.
 
Notwithstanding that Mr. Shultz has a company to run, one hopes while making money doing same, what Smith and Wesson have done amounts to the following, as I see it.

Despite advise to the contrairy, and the lessons of history and experience, they have dropped a large turd, right in the middle of their livingroom carpet, re the "agreement" they have reached, and if they really think that their cave in has brought them any real respite, they need to pull their collective heads out of the sand, and take a good look at what is going on.
 
The real dynomite in this agreement is that the dealers that sell S&W products have to comply with all of the following:

Gun shows: make no gun show sales unless all sales at the gun show are completed only after a background check.

Brady checks: wait as long as necessary for a completed Brady check showing that the purchaser is not a felon or otherwise prohibited before selling a gun to the purchaser.

Safety training for purchasers: transfer firearms only to individuals who have passed certified safety course or exam and demonstrate to purchasers how to use all safety devices and how to load, unload, and safely store the firearm before completing the sale.

Multiple handgun sales: all purchasers of multiple handguns to take only one handgun from the store on the day of sale, at which point a multiple sales report will be filed with ATF. The remainder of the guns can only be collected after 14 days.

Employee training: require all employees to attend ATF-approved training and to pass a exam on firearms laws, straw purchasers, illegal trafficking indicators, and gun safety.

Insurance: carry liability insurance where available, with a minimum coverage of $1 million for each incident.

Inventory control: maintain an electronic inventory tracking plan within 24 months
Security: implement a security plan for securing firearms.

Child access: require persons under 18 to be accompanied by adults in gun stores or gun sections of stores.

Weapons attractive to criminals: not sell large capacity magazines or semiautomatic assault weapons.

Compliance: provide law enforcement, government regulators, and the Oversight Commission established in this Agreement with access to documents necessary to determine compliance; cooperate fully in the Agreement’s Oversight mechanism.

Crime gun traces: maintain an electronic record of all ATF trace requests and report trace requests to manufacturers.

Indicted dealers: forgo firearms sales to licensed dealers known to be under indictment.

Straw purchasers: not to make sales to straw purchasers

That means that the Clinton administration has circumvented Congress and gotten assault weapon bans (total), large capacity magazine bans (total), gun safety courses or testing as a requirement for purchase, gun show bans, multiple purchase bans, and indefinite length backgroud checks for any dealer that wants to sell S&W products retail.

That means that if you walk into a gun store and attempt to buy a Ruger, you will have to comply with all of the above if that gun store sells S&W products. If the store doesn't comply with these terms in sales of all guns, they can't sell S&W guns.

Encourage your local gun stores to no longer sell or deal in retail S&W products. If the government gets any more of the major gun manufacturers in this agreement, these gun control provisions will be forced onto every gun store and customer if they want to sell guns at all.

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"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" - Patrick Henry
 
i hope Sgt Benedict Schultz feels really icky right now. HE has some new friends that want to play nice with their new pal.

dZ
 
I happened to catch that show. You couldn't get any more stiff looking than Schultz. I imagine that he has been getting a lot of emails and phone calls hammering him and the company for the treason they have committed against other manufacturers, distributers, dealers, and consumers. As usual the anti self defense guy got to ramble on and on using the phony stats like the 13 children a day and of course know one on the show refuted the stat. It's already been proven the majority of that stat are 17 -19 year old criminals. Then he went on to say I was in the Marine Corps and we spent days on gun safety before I was even able to touch a gun. What a bunch of BS! When I went through boot we hardly spent any time on safety. Most of the class room time was learning the operation, field striping, of the weapon. Oh and BTW I was 17 when I went in(I guess that would of put me in his children age range). F*&#ing G&$damn S&W this foreign owned bicycle making bunch jerks don't even realize what damage they've done.

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"Gun Control Only Protects Those in Power"
 
No wonder Shultz was uneasy. After reading David Kopel's analysis of S&W's agreement ( http://www.thefiringline.com:8080/forums/showthread.php?threadid=25828 ), I'm convinced that the anti-gunners dictated the agreement with the real but hidden goal of destroying Smith & Wesson, and in the further hope that other firearms manufacturers will also topple when S&W falls. Shultz, who I understand had little or no gun industry experience prior to becoming S&W's CEO, has participated in what may become the destruction of the company he's supposed to manage. His participation may have been foolish and blind, or he may have carried out what Tompkins, the parent company, ordered him to do, or both. In any case, I might feel sorry for Shultz, if the negative implications of what he's done weren't so serious for our democracy.

My $0.02.



[This message has been edited by jimmy (edited March 21, 2000).]
 
Read the agreement again.......

If a dealer sells S&W products, they must require that a safety course or test be given for all gun purchases. If they don't, they lose the right to sell S&W products.
 
Look, since no one will buy S&W products anymore, why is it a problem? Soon, gunshops, of their own volition, will no longer order those products. Problem solved. It's called the "free market".

And as I posted on another thread, I can almost HEAR the backroom conversation:

"But if we sign this agreement, no one will buy our products anymore. We'll be pariahs."

"No problem! The government will implement 'preferential buying' from various agencies, so you'll make more money than ever."

"Deal."

BAST*RDS!
 
The problem is that after a few other manufacturers capitulate, these gun stores will no longer be able to carry any inventory, unless they want to give in to HUD's demands. If they do that, they will still have to unload much of their inventory, such as AR15's.
 
Actually, what I expect will happen is that some dealers will drop S&W rather than agree to these ridiculous concessions. But even more dealers will agree to these concessions and then simply ignore them, assuming (and rightly so) that S&W isn't going to spend lots of time and money checking for compliance. Why should they? If they catch someone breaking the agreement and stop selling S&W products to him, they're hurting themselves.
 
True, David. But the agreement also provides for the ATF checking for compliance and then reporting back to the board.

This means that the ATF will be checking on S&W dealers for compliance.
 
I would be somewhat suprised if we saw many companies signing on to THIS agreement; Have you read clause VII? In effect it allows the gun control movement to unilaterally re-write the agreement, once manufacturers serving 50% of the market have signed on!

It does that by saying that once that threshold has been reached, every signatory to the agreement is bound by the most restrictive rules ANY firearms company in the country, even one that ISN'T a signatory to the agreement, agrees to submit to. The big boys sign the agreement as it stands, and then HCI forces some micro-manufacturer, (Maybe even an operation they set up themselves...) to agree to outrageous terms, and suddenly they're all bound by them. No one in their right might would sign this agreement; It's corporate suicide!

They must have applied enough pressure to S&W to turn coal into diamonds to get them to sign this insane agreement.

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Sic semper tyrannis!
 
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