Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 20:28:21 -0700 From: crowtalk@THERIVER.COM (Joe Horn) Subject: Words of Encouragement from another CEO to S&W's Schultz To: AZRKBA@asu.edu
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 Manhatan 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 gun 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