by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Call it “new,” call it “revised” or call it “clarified,” but Smith & Wesson has drafted an “Authorized Dealer Code of Responsibility,” in the wake of its settlement of a lawsuit in Boston, and supplied Gun Week with a copy.
Also obtained by Gun Week is a copy of the actual agreement, which, among other things, requires dealers and distributors to train their employees handling S&W firearms, and to provide a list of their names to the company.
Henceforth, S&W must also include a warning with each firearm on “the risk of firearms in the home” under terms of the Boston agreement. This agreement supercedes the more onerous one reached with the Clinton Administration last March by former S&W President Ed Schultz that created a furor in the industry, and among consumers. Several of the more objectionable tenets of that earlier accord are absent from the new document.
Meeting with selected members of the firearms press at a briefing breakfast during the recent SHOT Show in New Orleans, S&W’s Christopher J. Killoy, vice president for consumer products, and Ken Jorgensen, veteran director of marketing and communications, detailed the new code.
Effective Date
The company’s new policy should be in effect within the next several weeks, and consent decrees related to the Boston lawsuit should take effect in July. Details of the new policy were first reported in the Jan. 1 issue of Gun Week.
"We’ve actually had a dealer code for over 15 years,” Jorgensen noted. “It has gone through occasional changes and updates, and this is the latest draft.”
Under the dealer code, authorized S&W distributors may sell S&W firearms only to authorized dealers. Dealers must agree to complete all forms and related requirements under the Brady Act and Gun Control Act of 1968 in the presence of the buyer, and at the premises listed on their FFL.
In addition, they must carry liability insurance coverage of at least $1 million per incident for damage to property and for injury to, or death of, any person resulting from the sale, lease, or transfer of a firearm. Furthermore, retailers must provide safety locks and all applicable safety and instruction manuals with new S&W firearms. The company will provide dealers with safety locks through its Customer Service Department.
Dealers may make no sales of S&W firearms at gun shows unless all sales by any seller at the gun show include a background check. Within 24 months of the implementation of the agreement, retailers will maintain an inventory tracking system for S&W firearms.
No persons under age 18 will be allowed to handle a S&W firearm unless he or she is under the direct supervision of both an employee and a parent or guardian. This does not include youths under 18 who are involved in an organized training program, while under direct supervision.
“Any responsible gun shop operator would do this anyway,” Jorgensen said.
The six-page agreement helped pave the way for S&W to settle its lawsuit with the city of Boston, and could be the catalyst for settlement of other lawsuits in other cities.
Killoy said the company has had a dealer code of conduct for several years, so presenting this document now does not mark the beginning of a new era at the Springfield, MA, company.
Lawsuit Extrication
This is not the first time the beleaguered company has taken steps to extricate itself from the swarm of municipal lawsuits aimed at the firearms industry. Last year, Schultz announced a deal with the White House designed to free the company from threatened new lawsuits sponsored by ex-Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Andrew Cuomo.
That agreement created a firestorm in the industry, causing other gun manufacturers to distance themselves almost overnight from S&W.
While the Schultz-Cuomo agreement was initially touted as a way out of the municipal and county lawsuit mess for the company, it did not work out that way. Several cities refused to drop S&W as a defendant, and calls for S&W to get preferential treatment from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies were quickly denounced as attempts by the Clinton White House to skirt open bidding laws.
Also, consumers reacted harshly, refusing to purchase any more new S&W products.
Eventually Schultz left S&W, an act that some at the SHOT Show likened to the captain of a ship hitting an iceberg, then climbing aboard the first lifeboat.
Today, George Colclough, an attorney, reserve military officer and 25-year S&W employee, is at the helm of the company.
Change of Philosophy?
Now that there is a change of leadership in the White House and at the US Justice Department, there could also be a change of philosophy about suing the firearms industry, some insiders predict. Neither S&W’s Killoy or Jorgensen were willing to suggest that the company may re-think its approach to solving the litigation problem, simply because so many municipal actions are still in the courts.
This “revised” code of conduct for S&W retailers does reflect a change from the initial Schultz agreement. That one placed many conditions on dealers that now even S&W says would not have been enforceable.
Jorgensen, in a subsequent telephone conversation with Gun Week, said, “There were a number of things (in the Schultz-Cuomo agreement) that none of us were happy with. For example, there was the oversight committee, and a description of how dealers had to store their products at night.”
All of that is gone from the Boston accord, he noted.
More on Agreement
As reported earlier in Gun Week, S&W and Boston reached an agreement on how the company will do business that also includes specifics on the manufacture and sale of its revolvers and pistols.
Not reported earlier are the following tenets:
Warning Notice
Also, within six months, S&W must include in the packaging of each firearm a warning on the risk of firearms in the home and proper home storage. This warning shall state, in larger-than-normal type:
“This handgun is not equipped with a device that fully blocks use by unauthorized users. More than 200,000 firearms like this one are stolen from their owners every year in the United States. In addition, there are more than a thousand suicides each year by younger children and teen-agers who get access to firearms. Hundreds more die from accidental discharge. It is likely that many more children sustain serious wounds, or inflict such wounds accidentally on others. In order to limit the chance of such misuse, it is imperative that you keep this weapon locked in a secure place and take other steps necessary to limit the possibility of theft or accident. Failure to take reasonable preventative steps may result in innocent lives being lost, and in some circumstances may result in your liability for these deaths.”
The warning notice language is identical to that required by the Massachusetts attorney general’s consumer-protection-based regulations that apply to all dealers, distributors, importers and manufacturers doing business in the state.
In explaining why the company reached agreement with the city of Boston, Killoy remarked, “Our goal is to be in business, not walk away. We want to continue to serve the people, both dealers and consumers.”