|
Dave Kopel is the research director of the Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Golden, Colorado.
March 21, 2000
Smith & Wesson's Faustian Bargain, Part II
As promised, here’s the second half of Smith & Wesson's Faustian agreement with HUD, again decoded in [brackets]. If you missed Part I, click here.
- Warnings about safe storage and handling included with all firearms within six months.
[Every firearms manufacturer already includes a safety manual with the gun.]
- Manufacturers will not sell firearms that can readily be converted into fully automatic weapons or that are resistant to fingerprints.
[The first item has been illegal since 1934. The second item is a slap at Intratec, which has advertised a particular model as resistant to fingerprints.]
- Manufacturers will sell only to authorized dealers and distributors and allow their authorized distributors to sell only to authorized dealers.
[This conforms to S&W’s current business practice. Many smaller manufacturers, however, do not have the resources to maintain an authorized dealer system.]
- Authorized dealers and distributors will agree to a code of conduct...the code of conduct will require authorized dealers and distributors to:
make no gun show sales unless all sales at the gun show are completed only after a background check.
[In other words, an authorized S&W dealer can’t sell a gun in most American states, since most states do not require background checks for handgun or long gun sales by private gun collectors. Already, every firearms dealer, including authorized S&W dealers, must, by law, run background checks on every customer; the requirement applies for in-store sales, and for gun show sales. Now, S&W will forbid its dealers to sell at gun shows simply because the law of the state where the gun show takes place authorizes unregistered sales by private collectors. Since gun show sales are a very important source of revenue for many small dealers, some dealers will probably drop Smith & Wesson, rather than dropping out of gun shows. This provision is an important step towards Handgun Control’s goal of requiring government permission for anyone to obtain a gun, under any circumstances.]
- 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.
[Standard practice among most dealers already, although the law says that if the FBI instant check system fails to respond after 72 hours, the sale may go forward.]
- 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.
[The second condition — demonstrating how to use the gun — is already common in many gun stores.]
- All purchasers of multiple handguns [can] 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.
[The multiple sales report has been required by law since 1968. The delay is premised on the phony claim that lawful multiple purchases from retail gun stores are an important source of crime guns.]
- Require persons under 18 to be accompanied by adults in gun stores or gun sections of stores.
[Mandatory political correctness. No more sending your teenager to the local gun store to pick up some gun cleaning supplies for you. This helps further the idea that guns are evil, like cigarettes, and that children should be kept away from them.]
- [Do] not sell large capacity magazines or semiautomatic assault weapons.
[Furthers the lie from Handgun Control and Bill Clinton that so-called “assault weapons” — guns with certain cosmetic features — are preferred by criminals, as are magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. The sale of any of these items made before 1995 is perfectly legal, and HCI’s campaign for confiscation of all these items has been a failure. Many gun dealers are willing to sell S&W guns according to S&W’s terms, but here, S&W is attempting to forbid the sale of products from other companies. This provision will certainly cause some dealers to drop the S&W product line, rather than allowing one manufacturer to dictate the store’s inventory.]
- 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.
[In other words, stores that sell S&W guns must surrender their business privacy, and their Fourth Amendment right to insist that government employees obtain a court order before looking at private records.]
- Maintain an electronic record of all ATF trace requests and report trace requests to manufacturers.
[Easy for any store with a computer.]
- Forgo firearms sales to licensed dealers known to be under indictment.
[So much for the Fifth Amendment principle of innocent until proven guilty.]
- [Do not] make sales to straw purchasers.
[Has been illegal since 1968.]
- Manufacturers will: Provide quarterly sales data to ATF.
[Resurrects a BATF proposal that Congress voted down by a 3-1 margin in 1978.]
- [Do not] market guns in any manner designed to appeal to juveniles or criminals.
[Doesn’t affect S&W, which only makes handguns, but undercuts companies like Marlin, which make lightweight .22 rifles for teenagers.]
- Refrain from selling any modified/sporterized semi-automatic pistol of type that cannot be imported into U.S.
[No impact on S&W, but does affect some other handgun companies.]
- Reaffirm policy of not placing advertisements in vicinity of schools, high crime zones, and public housing.
[Most gun stores advertise with newspaper ads rather than billboards, so this has little impact. But the provision implies that people in high crime zones and public housing should not have firearms for protection.]
- Implement a security plan for securing firearms.
[Common already, since dealers don’t want their inventory stolen.]
- If an authorized dealer or distributor has a disproportionate number of crime guns traced to it within three years of sale, the manufacturers will take action, including possible termination or suspension, against the dealer or distributor. ,br>[BATF traces a gun whenever local law enforcement asks. There is no requirement that the gun be connected to a crime, and the majority of gun traces are unrelated to the use of a gun in a crime. By requesting traces in every possible circumstance, a local police chief can drive up the trace numbers for gun stores in his area. Then, S&W will cut off sales to those stores — even though the stores have done nothing wrong, and have sold every gun in compliance with the law.]
- Oversight Commission will be established and empowered to oversee implementation of the Agreement. The Commission will have five members selected as follows: one by manufacturers; two by city and county parties; one by state parties; one by ATF.
[Thus, the commission will have a 4-1 anti-gun majority.]
- Within six months, if technologically available, manufacturers will fire all firearms before sale and will enter the digital image of the casings in a system compatible with the National Integrated Ballistics Identification Network and accessible to ATF. This will enable law enforcement to trace crime guns when only the bullets or casings are recovered.
[...and bring us a few steps closer to universal gun registration.]
- Manufacturers shall participate in ATF’s Access 2000 program, which establishes electronic links with ATF and enables high-speed tracing of crime guns.
[Already done by most large manufacturers. Again, most traces are unrelated to gun crime.]
- The parties will work together to support legislative efforts to reduce firearm misuse and the development of authorized user technology.
[S&W commits itself to work with the gun prohibition lobby, and to outlaw companies like Glock, which do not want to risk their customers’ lives by making potentially unreliable computer guns.]
- Upon resolution of all current city, state, and county lawsuits, manufacturers will dedicate 1% of overall firearms revenues to an education trust fund.
[Who controls the trust fund?]
- If other manufacturers enter agreements with more expansive design and distribution reforms, and those manufacturers, along with the manufacturer parties to this Agreement, account for fifty percent or more of United States handgun sales, the manufacturer parties to this Agreement will agree to abide by the same reforms.
[S&W commits itself to even further abuses, if more gun companies capitulate.]
| Think a friend would want to read this? Send it along.
|
|