Firm Being Realistic; Nra Being Spiteful

In a sensible move last week, handgun manufacturer Smith & Wesson agreed to safety and marketing restrictions in exchange for the dismissal of liability lawsuits brought by municipalities.

The deal was the product of months of negotiations between the British-owned gun maker and the Clinton administration. But in a bugle call to its troops, brimming with the usual war metaphors, the National Rifle Association called the manufacturer “the first gun maker to run up the white flag of surrender and duck behind the Clinton-Gore lines, blind-siding other members of the U.S. firearms industry.”

In reading over the deal, it’s difficult to discern what is so traitorous. Among other reforms, Smith & Wesson pledges to put trigger locks on all of its handguns, make gun grips too big and triggers too heavy for young children to fire, imprint a “hidden” second serial number on guns to deter theft and develop “smart” technology that would enable only an authorized user to fire a gun.

Guns are the only consumer products that have been allowed to escape federal safety standards. There are more regulations for the manufacture of a toy gun than for the real thing. Besides, many major manufacturers already provide some sort of lock with their weapons. Since 1997, Smith & Wesson and Beretta have shipped locks with the guns they sell. Plus, several manufacturers have been working on high-tech solutions to gun safety.

Nobody claims that these safety measures will eliminate gun accidents or gun crimes. But they might chip away at these sad statistics: three young people die every day from accidental gunshots in this country; public safety experts estimate three to four times that number are injured. Many municipalities have filed lawsuits against gun makers, hoping to recoup the cost of emergency services associated with such carnage.

Realistically, gun makers such as Smith & Wesson have little choice but to compromise. It’s easy for the NRA to blast such deals when it isn’t facing potentially ruinous lawsuits. But if gun rights groups were serious about shielding manufacturers from safety standards, they would’ve established a legal defense fund long ago. They haven’t put up or shut up.

Instead, the NRA is hoping to enlist its 3.5 million members in a boycott against Smith & Wesson. The move is designed to give other manufacturers second thoughts before caving into “government extortion.”

When you toss cold logic on such superheated rhetoric, what’s left is a sane compromise that may very well save young lives. The rest is smoke.