Connecticut handgun manufacturer Smith & Wesson has earned the dubious honor of becoming Bill Clinton's favorite gun company. By agreeing to modify its product design and distribution, the company earned a promise not to be sued by Andrew Cuomo’s Department of Housing and Urban Development, by the Attorneys General of New York and Connecticut, and got some — but not all — of the cities which have sued the company to drop their lawsuits.
Smith and Wesson says that if it had not stopped the suits, the company would have gone out of business within a year, due to attorney fees. But it should be noted that other gun companies are under equally great financial pressure, and have not capitulated.
To be sure, the agreement will have only a moderate effect on the way Smith and Wesson does business. At the same time, the contract terms — if enforced against other gun companies — could drive them out of business. The application of the agreement to several of Smith & Wesson's smaller competitors, or to Glock (one of the largest and most successful handgun companies), would destroy them. Thus, Smith and Wesson gains an advantage, by agreeing to terms which will harm its competitors.
The positive short-term consequences for the company will be increased government sales and reduced litigation expenses. The negative consequences will be that Smith & Wesson will lose many of its retailers. In addition, gun buyers who care about Second Amendment rights will stop buying Smith & Wesson products.
In the long term, S&W has increased the chances that it, along with every other handgun manufacturer, will be destroyed. S&W has legitimated frivolous lawsuits against financially vulnerable businesses, and has thereby encouraged the victimization of many other business by abusive lawyers and prohibition groups.
In short, S&W's appeasement — which, in many cases, does little to alter the way the company has been doing business — gains it a short armistice with its enemies. But appeasement didn't save France, and it won't save S&W.
Here’s the first half of what's in the agreement, according to the official summary on the HUD website. I have decoded it in [brackets].
All handguns must meet the following safety and design standards:
- Second "hidden" serial number, to prevent criminals from obliterating serial numbers.
[Already done by many gun manufacturers.]
- External locking device sold with all guns within 60 days.
[S&W has been giving away locks with every handgun since 1997.]
- Internal locking device on all guns within 24 months.
[The lock that S&W will use can be left in the “open” position permanently.]
- Manufacturers commit 2% of annual firearms revenues to the development of authorized user technology [Smart Guns]. Within 36 months, authorized user technology will be included in all new firearm models, with the exception of curios and collectors’ firearms. If top eight manufacturers agree, authorized user technology will be included in all new firearms.
[Note that the new technology is for new models only, not new production of current models. S&W has already been working at personalization technology. So far, solving the problem of putting a computer in a gun-and making the computer work 100% reliably-has proven extremely difficult. Buyer resistance to guns that only work 99% of the time is likely to be very serious. To the extent that this agreement helps pass legislation to mandate so-called smart guns, the agreement will put S&W’s competitor Glock out of business; Glock has made a business decision not to invest millions of dollars in personalization technology that may never work reliably.]
- Child Safety. Within 12 months, handguns will be designed so they cannot be readily operated by a child under 6.
[S&W guns already conform to this. The revolvers have a 10 pound trigger pull, and the semi-automatic pistols require that the slide be pulled.]
- Performance test. All firearms will be subject to a performance test to ensure safety and quality.
[Common industry practice already.]
- Drop test. All firearms will be subject to a test to ensure they do not fire when dropped.
[No handgun manufacturer in the U.S. makes guns which fail the drop test.]
- All pistols must meet the following additional requirements:
[“Pistol” in this context means a self-loading, semi-automatic handgun, as opposed to a revolver.]
- Safety device. Positive manually operated safety device.
[Already standard on S&W pistols.]
- Magazine disconnectors must be available on all pistols to customers who desire the feature, within 12 months.
[A magazine disconnect prevents the gun from firing if the magazine is not in the gun, and there is a round in the firing chamber. People who own handguns for defensive purposes, including law enforcement officers, generally prefer guns without magazine disconnects.]
- Chamber load indicators on all pistols, showing whether the pistol is loaded, within 12 months.
[To the extent that the people begin to rely on chamber load indicators, they will violate the fundamental firearms safety rule: “treat every gun as if it’s loaded.]
- New firearm designs will not be able to accept large-capacity magazines that were manufactured prior to September 1994. (Manufacture of such magazines has been prohibited since that date.)
[So new S&W guns have to be incompatible with pre-1995 magazines. Here, S&W undercuts defensive gun use, by ensuring that people who buy new models will not be able to fire more than 11 rounds without stopping to change the magazine. There are many incidents in which defensive gun users have had to fire more than 11 rounds to stop multiple attackers, or even single attackers who are under the influence of drugs.]
- If law enforcement agencies or the military certify the need, exceptions to these requirements may be made. Manufacturers will ask that these guns not be resold to the civilian market.
[Law enforcement retains the ability to obtain reliable firearms. Since defensive gun use by ordinary people is immoral, it would be better for them to die rather than defend themselves with an effective firearm.]
Click here for Part II of the [decoded] Smith & Wesson agreement.
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