I figured I'd do my own little piece on S&W.
While reading the posts concerning S&W possibly being driven out of business there are actually people who are posting how we are wrong to let S&W die. I have to ask myself if these people have ever actually read the agreement. Well, Have You????
It's about trigger locks, right? WRONG!!!
It's about back door gun legislation, registration, and eventually confiscation!

I've decided to pick out just a few points of the agreement that bother me the most. There's plenty more to the agreement but here are just a few of the finer points. While reading these keep in mind how familiar they sound. Most of these are ideas straight from the anti gun crowd, things they failed to have enacted into law so they fooled S&W into agreeing to them voluntarily.
[red]My own comments in red[/red]

[b]SALES AND DISTRIBUTION[/b]
Code of Conduct. The manufacturers will sell only to authorized dealers and distributors and allow their authorized distributors to sell only to authorized dealers. Authorized dealers and distributors will agree to a code of conduct.
[red]Or they cannot sell S&W products.[/red]


[b]Gun shows:[/b] make no gun show sales unless all sales at the gun show are completed only after a background check.
[red]Forget selling your guns at a gunshow unless you are willing to go through a gun dealer to do the transfer, even if its legal in your state to do so.[/red]


[b]Safety training for purchasers:[/b] transfer firearms only to individuals who have passed certified safety course or exam and demonstrate to purchasers how to use all safety devices and how to load, unload, and safely store the firearm before completing the sale.


[b]Multiple handgun sales:[/b] all purchasers of multiple handguns to take only one handgun from the store on the day of sale, at which point a multiple sales report will be filed with ATF. The remainder of the guns can only be collected after 14 days.
[red]Why should I have to wait 14 days to bring my gun home?[/red]


[b]Child access: require persons under 18 to be accompanied by adults in gun stores or gun sections of stores.[/b]


[b]Weapons attractive to criminals:[/b] not sell large capacity magazines or semiautomatic assault weapons.
[red]I’m assuming that S&W would concider AR15.Com to be attractive to criminals.[/red]



[b]Compliance:[/b] provide law enforcement, government regulators, and the Oversight Commission established in this Agreement with access to documents necessary to determine compliance; cooperate fully in the Agreement’s Oversight mechanism.
[red]I think they call this “gun registration” in other countries.[/red]


[b]Straw purchasers:[/b] not to make sales to straw purchasers.
[red]I guess if you own a horse and want to feed it then S&W doesn’t want you to be able to buy one of their guns?[/red]


[b]Manufacturer commitments: Manufacturers will:[/b]
*Provide quarterly sales data to ATF.
*Not market guns in any manner designed to appeal to juveniles or criminals.
*Refrain from selling any modified/sporterized semi-automatic pistol of type that cannot be imported into U.S.
*Reaffirm policy of not placing advertisements in vicinity of schools, high crime zones, and public housing. [red]So people in public housing are less deserving of the ability to protect their lives and the lives of their family. I think most would agree that they are in greater need.[red]

This is one of the worst portions of the agreement and one of the most subtle legislative ploys forwarded to ban guns. It seems so innocent and reasonable. Who could be against safety training for purchasers? But once passing an exam is required to purchase, it is a simple matter to increase the difficulty of the test until virtually no one can pass. Making the exam difficult/expensive to take can achieve the same results, i.e. course offered in state capital only, third Wednesday of the month, 9:00 AM, size limited to 10 individuals, registration fee $7,354.16.

When the S & W agreement first came out, I came up with an analogy to help explain it to the neutral's out there who were getting just the media's crap about it being only about trigger locks and gun safety stuff.

It is like a very few people faking up ID's and W-2's and going to H & R Block and filing fake tax returns to get refunds.  The Gov.org is seeing that they are losing money, so they threaten to sue H & R Block for not checking the ID's closely enough (H & R Block is not legally required to do that, but it didn't matter to the gov.org).  Block is afraid to go to court and spend millions of dollars defending itself against the government, so they make an agreement with the gov.org.  They will now:

1.  Report ANY possible grey areas on any tax return they come across as errors and/or fraud.
2.  NOT tell customers about little-known legal deductions that they may take.
3.  Turn in ANYONE they are suspicious of for tax fraud, even if it is unfounded, or they made a simple error.
4.  Any private information that Block gets, even if it is not normally filed with your taxes will be sent to the IRS anyway.

(I came up with a couple more examples, but you get the gist of it).

In return, the gov.org won't sue Block and will get all government W-2's sent to Block so the employees will go there for their tax work.  Gov.org will also push local and state governments to do the same.


When you explain it to the people like that (since everyone files their taxes), they finally realize exactly how intrusive the agreement is.

Don't forget the requirement to try to invent "smart guns" and then not sell anything except "smart gun" by a certain date, whether or not they have actually invented something that works.  Likewise any dealer that wants to sell S&W "smart guns" won't be allowed to sell any other company's guns that aren't "smart" after that date.

Oh yes, none of the restrictions apply to military or law enforcement.  Heaven forbid that the government should have guns that might not work.

I sold all of my S&W guns.  I still get so steamed when I reread any of the BS in the agreement that I turn puple!  To hell with them.  [:(!]

Also, S&W will dictate to any customer what they can and cannot sell, ie no high cap mags, "assault weapons".  Screw S&W, and that's coming from a Mass resident.  Even though we in Mass can basically only buy new S&W (some Sig, some Walther, nothing else new) handguns in this state, let them rot! If the new owners won't try to get out of the deal, SHAME on them!  They can go under for all I care!