http://www.jointogether.org/gv/wire/news/reader.jtml?Object_ID=545249

HUD Not Enforcing Smith & Wesson Agreement
August 10, 2001
HUD Not Enforcing Smith & Wesson Agreement
The Bush administration is not enforcing a milestone agreement made last
year in which a gunmaker agreed to increase safety efforts in exchange for
being dropped from federal and local government lawsuits, the Wall Street
Journal reported Aug. 1.
Amid much controversy, Smith & Wesson was the only gun manufacturer to
make the agreement with the government.
With a new administration in the White House, officials at Smith & Wesson
said the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the agency
assigned to oversee the agreement, is not following through on the deal.
The company has not had any contact with HUD officials, and it remains
listed as a defendant in many gun lawsuits.
A HUD official acknowledged that the agreement is not being enforced,
explaining that the Bush administration views the Smith & Wesson agreement
as a memorandum of understanding that isn't legally binding for either
side. "HUD is not enforcing it. In fact, HUD is not doing anything with
it," the official said.
From a legal standpoint, Georgetown University law professor Paul
Rothstein explained, "If nobody is enforcing the agreement, that mutes the
impact of the contract immeasurably."
Gun-control advocates said they weren't surprised that the Bush
administration is ignoring the agreement.

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It doesn't surprise me at all.  

S&W sold their soul to the devil, the public backlash drove them to their knees, and S&W's LEO-oriented firearms aren't all that desirable anyway when compared to Glock, Sig, and others.

Now the political climate has changed with Bush in the White House and Ashcroft at Justice.  Plus, lawsuits against the gunmakers are being tossed out left and right, so there's not much incentive to enforce the agreement.

I think S&W caught a break.

If anything good comes from this debacle, it would that other firearms manufacturers will be very reluctant to sign-on to any agreements that would invite government regulation of the businesses.

Doesn't change a thing to me.  It's a legal contract that could be enforced at anytime.

THey need to get rid of it before the healing with S&W can begin.

It makes no difference. They, Smith, still signed it and have not rescended it. Until they rescend it they are still traitors to the second.

Before someone says they are now owned by an American company keep in mind that that American company, Saf-T-Hammer, pushed measures in congress for manditory trigger safeties to further their own agenda and promote their business even before buying Smith. If anything they are worse than Thompkins was.
Screw Smith & Wesson.