As read in USA Today...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncsthu02.htm
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) - Smith & Wesson is backing away from parts of its landmark agreement with the Clinton administration that called on it to crack down on gun dealers.
A ''clarification'' posted on the company's Web site contends that the company's agreement requiring dealers of Smith & Wesson guns to make background checks and impose other restrictions on sales only applies to the sale of the gunmaker's firearms.
The government claims all dealers wishing to sell Smith & Wesson products must apply the same restrictions to all makes of guns.
The company also said that criminal background checks it agreed to for gun-show sales would apply only to firearms sold by licensed dealers and not by private citizens.
''We can't agree to control things that we have no way to control,'' Ken Jorgensen, a spokesman for Smith & Wesson, told The Baltimore Sun.
Jorgensen didn't immediately return phones calls today to The Associated Press.
Smith & Wesson's Web site said the company would abide by other major parts of the agreement. The Web site said Smith & Wesson would still include external safety locks with all handguns, install internal locks within two years and work on developing ''smart'' technology that limits a gun's use to its rightful owner.
Due to the March 17 agreement, Smith & Wesson was dropped from lawsuits that federal, state and local governments filed against gunmakers.
Clinton administration officials and a lawyer representing several municipalities dismissed Smith & Wesson's interpretation of its responsibilities as a public relations ploy, the Sun reported Wednesday.
However, they said they would be willing to go to court to force Smith & Wesson into compliance.
''The language of the deal is clear on all these points,'' Neal Wolin, general counsel of the Treasury Department, told the newspaper.
Since the accord was signed, Smith & Wesson has come under sharp criticism from other gunmakers, dealers and gun rights activists.
However, Smith & Wesson's altered position was backed by the Violence
Policy Center, a gun-control group that has criticized the deal from the beginning.
''On its face, the agreement was ambiguous,'' Kristen Rand, the group's director of federal policy, told the Sun. ''It was never clear how Smith &Wesson could impose its will on its competitors.''
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncsthu02.htm
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) - Smith & Wesson is backing away from parts of its landmark agreement with the Clinton administration that called on it to crack down on gun dealers.
A ''clarification'' posted on the company's Web site contends that the company's agreement requiring dealers of Smith & Wesson guns to make background checks and impose other restrictions on sales only applies to the sale of the gunmaker's firearms.
The government claims all dealers wishing to sell Smith & Wesson products must apply the same restrictions to all makes of guns.
The company also said that criminal background checks it agreed to for gun-show sales would apply only to firearms sold by licensed dealers and not by private citizens.
''We can't agree to control things that we have no way to control,'' Ken Jorgensen, a spokesman for Smith & Wesson, told The Baltimore Sun.
Jorgensen didn't immediately return phones calls today to The Associated Press.
Smith & Wesson's Web site said the company would abide by other major parts of the agreement. The Web site said Smith & Wesson would still include external safety locks with all handguns, install internal locks within two years and work on developing ''smart'' technology that limits a gun's use to its rightful owner.
Due to the March 17 agreement, Smith & Wesson was dropped from lawsuits that federal, state and local governments filed against gunmakers.
Clinton administration officials and a lawyer representing several municipalities dismissed Smith & Wesson's interpretation of its responsibilities as a public relations ploy, the Sun reported Wednesday.
However, they said they would be willing to go to court to force Smith & Wesson into compliance.
''The language of the deal is clear on all these points,'' Neal Wolin, general counsel of the Treasury Department, told the newspaper.
Since the accord was signed, Smith & Wesson has come under sharp criticism from other gunmakers, dealers and gun rights activists.
However, Smith & Wesson's altered position was backed by the Violence
Policy Center, a gun-control group that has criticized the deal from the beginning.
''On its face, the agreement was ambiguous,'' Kristen Rand, the group's director of federal policy, told the Sun. ''It was never clear how Smith &Wesson could impose its will on its competitors.''
