Smith & Wesson agrees to landmark gun safety settlement

Gun lobby offers harsh criticism but Administration hopes other manufacturers will follow suit

By Amy Paulson/CNN

March 17, 2000
Web posted at: 9:37 p.m. EST (0237 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Smith & Wesson, the nation's largest gun manufacturer, agreed Friday to a landmark legal settlement in which the company will make several changes in its gun marketing, manufacturing and design practices.

Calling the settlement a "major victory for America's families," President Bill Clinton said the agreement "says that gun makers can and will share in the responsibility to keep their products out of the wrong hands. And it says that gun makers can and will make their guns much safer without infringing on anyone's rights."

The Connecticut-based company has agreed to include child safety locks, ensure background checks both at retail stores and gun shows and take so-called ballistic fingerprints of its guns, among other provisions. In exchange, state and local governments will drop pending lawsuits against the company, and the federal government will not file suit, as it had said it would in December 1999 unless a settlement could be reached.

The accord does not affect suits pending against the nation's other gun manufacturers, but the president added that he hoped it would encourage other companies to respond in kind.

"The effort to reduce gun violence is not about politics," Clinton said. "It is about saving lives. This agreement shows we can get so much done when we find the courage to find common ground."

Smith & Wesson agreed to a "code of conduct" for future sales and distribution of handguns. In exchange, all pending or future suits at the state and local level against the company will be dismissed. The agreement does not affect current or future lawsuits with the nation's other gun manufacturers.

Among other items, the agreement requires the company to:

--Immediately begin selling all Smith & Wesson guns with locks.

--Build the locks into the weapon within two years.

--Ensure within two years that its guns cannot be fired by a child.

--Incorporate "smart gun technology" within three years ensuring that only an authorized user will be able to fire the weapon.

--Instruct dealers to not sell a gun until a criminal background check is completed -- even if it takes more than 72 hours under which the check must be completed by current law.

--Instruct dealers not to complete a gun show sale unless a background check is completed.

--Include a second, hidden serial number to help law enforcement trace guns.

--Work with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to develop a system in which every new gun is test fired and the results entered into a new ballistic, imaging system to trace casings found at crime scenes.

--Require gun purchasers to certify they have completed a firearm safety course.

The agreement caps a remarkable week in which Democrats in Congress have pushed hard on the issue of gun safety, and the National Rifle Association has tried to portray the Clinton Administration as lax in enforcing existing gun laws in a series of increasingly personal and bitter attacks by the group.

Smith & Wesson President and Chief Executive Officer Ed Shultz acknowledged that the agreement "will not be popular with everyone, but to us it makes sense and is the right thing to do." He added that it will allow ensure the future viability of the company.

Early reactions by to the announcement by the gun lobby proved Shultz right.

"It has taken the full weight of the federal government at taxpayer expense to put a stranglehold on one of the largest producers of a legal product in this country to force it to change its behavior," said John Velleco of the Gun Owners of America. The Springfield, Virginia-based lobbying group claims it has more than 200,000 members.

"The fact is, these anti-safety gun restrictions that the president is supporting will cost lives. They will hurt the ability of honest people to defend themselves. And that's the bottom line," said GOA executive director Larry Pratt.

Other gun groups sounded a similar theme. "It is a source of disappointment that Smith & Wesson representatives would elect to make this one-sided agreement with the Clinton Adminstration with no notification or consultation with the rest of the industry," said a statement issued by the National Shoot Sports Foundation Inc., which describes itself as the world's largest firearms trade organization.

And an NRA spokesman called the agreement "tantamount to back door blackmail," and predicted that the nation's other gun manufacturers will not follow suit and will continue to manufacture and sell guns the way they always have.

But the settlement likely will lead to similar accords with the rest of the nation's gun makers, according to one attorney involved in the suits. "It might not be tomorrow, but it's going to be," said John Coale, whose Castano group represented New Orleans, which filed the first such suit against gun makers in October 1998, and currently represents six cities suing gun makers.

Coale said that gun company officials have told him for two years "that they'd love to settle these cases, but the NRA would kill them."

Details of the agreement were unveiled at a midday press conference at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Federal officials, Smith & Wesson's Shultz and officials from a number of cities, including Atlanta, Miami, Detroit, St. Louis, Los Angeles and San Francisco, participated either in person or by telephone.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo announces the settlement at a news conference Friday.

"What we do here today is only the first step, but it is a big step indeed," Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo said Friday. "The principles of the agreement will provide a framework for a new, enlightened gun policy for this nation."

Approximately 30 states, cities and counties have filed or threatened to file suit against the industry in an attempt to recover the gun-related costs governments incur. State and local representatives were on hand Friday to sign onto the agreement.

"This settlement will bring fundamental changes in areas we focused on right from the start," said Cuomo. HUD officials estimate the department spends nearly $1 billion each year trying to keep approximately 3.3 million housing assistance recipients safer from gun violence.

The settlement was the result of nearly a year of negotiations with the company and federal and state officials, and sources tell CNN that a final agreement was reached on Friday morning.

Cuomo explained that while there was no single element that spurred the agreement , the increase in the number of school shootings "increased the pressure on everyone to get something done."

Gun safety legislation has languished in Congress for the past eight months. Clinton has made passing the bill a priority, and that move has led to the recent spate of fiery exchanges with the NRA.

The powerful gun lobby opposes several of the proposed restrictions in the legislation.

The agreement is signed at Friday's news conference.

The agreement will be monitored by a commission of representatives from state and local government, Smith & Wesson, and the ATF. The ATF will use its inspection resources to help the parties monitor the agreement.

"Smith & Wesson is to be commended for taking the long view," said Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers.

"We hope and we trust that other firearms manufacturers will step forward as Smith & Wesson has done, Summers said. "We look forward to working with the entire firearms industry to further the cause of responsible firearms ownership and safety in this country."

CNN's Pierre Thomas, Major Garrett, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.