Message #60 (122 is last):
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 17:54:02 +0200
From: steve.raiguel@MED.KULEUVEN.AC.BE ("Steve Raiguel, PhD")
Subject: Latest S & W spin
To: AZRKBA@asu.edu
Gunmaker redefines deal with government
04/13/2000
Baltimore Sun
WASHINGTON - Smith & Wesson, America's largest
manufacturer of
handguns, has issued a "clarification" of its
landmark pact with the federal
government - a change that would effectively
eviscerate much of the gun
control trumpeted by the Clinton administration.
Smith & Wesson's interpretation - posted on its Web
site - has forced the
company back into talks with the administration that
could lead to a
protracted court battle.
Administration officials dismissed Smith & Wesson's
interpretation as more
of a public-relations gambit than a change of heart
but said they would be
willing to go to court to force compliance.
"The deal speaks for itself," said Neal Wolin,
general counsel of the
Treasury Department, referring to the agreement Smith
& Wesson reached
March 17 with federal, state and local officials as a
way to settle lawsuits it
had faced related to gun violence.
Contrary to the government's interpretation, the
gunmaker says, the
agreement compels Smith & Wesson dealers to impose
background
checks and other gun-sale restrictions only on buyers
of Smith & Wesson
products. The government maintains that under the
agreement, dealers who
wish to sell Smith & Wesson's products must impose
such restrictions on
buyers of all guns.
Moreover, the company says, the criminal background
checks Smith &
Wesson agreed to for gun show sales would not apply
to guns sold by
private citizens, only to those sold by licensed
dealers. Gun show sales by
licensed dealers are already subject to checks.
"We can't agree to control things that we have no way
to control," said
Ken Jorgensen, a spokesman for Smith & Wesson.
Smith & Wesson's accord was touted as a breakthrough
by federal
officials, in large part because it was supposed to
have a broad effect on
the entire firearms industry. Under the government's
interpretation, Smith &
Wesson agreed that its products could be sold only by
dealers who
followed a strict "code of responsibility" for all
sales.
Under that code, all customers would have to pass a
criminal background
check. Dealers that sell Smith & Wesson guns would
have to maintain
rigorous records of all gun sales, and all guns would
have to be stored and
displayed in a secure manner.