struck me as interesting, possibly others too

alan

New member
Subject:
Words of Encouragement from another CEO to S&W
Date:
Wed, 22 Mar 2000 19:55:20 -0500
From:
"Weldon Clark" <luz.clark@prodigy.net>
Reply-To:
<2nd-Amendment-News@frostbit.com>
To:
2nd-Amendment-News@frostbit.com


Words of Encouragement from another CEO to S&W

Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000
To: Ed Schultz CEO & President
Smith & Wesson
2100 Roosevelt Ave.
Springfield, MA 01102
Phone 413-781-8300
Fax 413-731-8980
http:/www.smith-wesson.com
eshultz@smith-wesson.com

From: Rick Carone rlcarone@pacops.com
Editors Note: Rick Carone is a past member of the NRA
Board of Directors and VP of Chase Manhattan Bank.
Presently he is CEO of the OGM group of companies. NRA
and GOA have condemned the S&W actions and many are
calling for a boycott.

Subject: Words of Encouragement from another CEO

Ed:

I'm the CEO of an oil company that operates offshore in an
environmentally sensitive area. As you might appreciate,
ours is a highly regulated industry. In fact, we work with over
30 state, local and federal government agencies. Having
dealt with extremist environmental groups over the last
twenty years, who also use "safety" to try and shut down
offshore projects and destroy the associated
companies...we're still here... So may I give you some
advice? Keep in mind that you are dealing with extremists
who simply want all guns and anything or anyone associated
with them to "disappear". Nothing you say or do trying to
appease them is going to change that...you just proved to
them that their bulling tactics work and have emboldened
them for their next attack.

I've watched companies in our business try the very same
thing (appeasement)....These few companies are perceived
as weak. Far from letting up on them, the extremist groups --
like wolves-- continually attack the weakest companies in the
industry. This works out pretty well for the rest of us for a
number of reasons:

1) It's a lesson for everyone in the industry -- including the
company whose "reasonable concessions" are taken
advantage of -- that appeasement does not work. Thus the
survivors are strengthened whether or not the weak company
survives (in many cases they can't).

2) While the appeasing company becomes the one to be
continually chewed on, pressure is taken off the rest of the
industry, giving them the opportunity to more effectively deal
with threat.

So what you've done here may not be all that bad for the
industry as a whole; it's just going to take a lot of energy, time
and money out of S&W as you become their red meat. In this
regard, I think you deserve another prestigious NRA award
and banquet, like the one they gave you a couple of years
ago.

Great Job.....Keep up the good work. Not everyone
appreciates how smart you have to be to develop a smart
gun. When the going gets tough...just remember the words
of another great businessman....Rodney King...
"Can't we all just get along?"

Good Luck & Best Regards, Rick Carone

******************************************************
From: Weldon H. Clark Jr.

Dear Ed:

I'm an engineer who design and builds products for an
industry with more accidents and law suits that the firearms
industry. You have made a bad mistake.

Did you ever seek the advice of anyone else before giving in
to blackmail?

When your new technology fails to work, you and S&W will
be sued. This so called smart technology can and will fail.
Firearms have been designed over many decades to
withstand extremes of temperature and water and dirt.

Can you imagine your own home with a burglar breaking in
and not being able to use your own firearm?

Can you for see a criminal using one of your guns and the
guns fires in spite of your device?

If you produce this device simply because you were
blackmailed into it and force this on your customers you
deserve all the lawsuits you are going to get.

Weldon H. Clark Jr.
**************************************************
>From The 2ndAmendmentNews Team
 
S&W-Sacrificial Lamb(sheep?), fine by me. I guess S&W figures on giving the lion a little taste to keep it satisfied for a while. Too bad the lion is VERY hungry.
 
Good analogy. Don't eat me! Here, just take my foot!

[This message has been edited by sensop (edited March 23, 2000).]
 
I'm not whistling in the graveyard, but S&W's el-foldo may be a blessing in disguise.

The antis and extremists (is there a difference?) don't seem to have any sense of moderation and fail to learn by their mistakes. Perhaps they honest-to-God feel that their cause is so pure and noble, that everybody will condone their abuses.

I think that CEO is right on the money and that the antis will now pounce on S&W and try to extort even more out the gun manufacturers in general and S&W in particular. They will do it to such an excess that it turns the public off or at least expose themselves and their tactics
with the same results.

One can only hope. I would love to see them turn on S&W now in a feeding frenzy. Maybe demand "reparation" for all the "damage" their guns have done.

------------------
The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.
 
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