http://www.berettausa.com/smartgun/smartgun_smith.htm

BERETTA REJECTS SMITH & WESSON SETTLEMENT

Since October 1998, a number of city mayors and county officials have filed lawsuits against the firearm industry intended to force compliance with a wide array of regulatory initiatives that the American public has refused to authorize through constitutionally prescribed legislation.

These government officials have openly and unashamedly challenged reputable and responsible firearm manufactures to either defend against these unfounded lawsuits at extreme financial cost or accept their ill-considered regulatory demands.

One manufacturer has now capitulated to this blackmail. Beretta denounces this surrender, as well as the blatant disregard which these locally elected officials have shown for the U.S. Constitution, including the Separation of Powers, Due Process rights of firearm customers, dealers, distributors and manufacturers, and of the right of Self-Defense embodied in the 2nd Amendment.

We object to the suggestion that any manufacturer who does not subscribe to the ill-founded demands of this handful of local officials is not dedicated to making the safest possible firearms and is not committed to the furtherance of safe and responsible use of our products. It is our dedication to such causes, along with the public education efforts of safety-oriented organizations such as the NRA, that has led to a 45% reduction in accidental firearms fatalities in the past 15 years and which promises continued reductions in the future. We remain committed to the coordination of funding of education and safety programs to further the safe and responsible use of firearms.

The attempt by local officials to compel compliance on a national level with their self-chosen gun restrictions is a distasteful misuse of litigation, wrong by any law, ethics and fairness.

We further maintain that the settlement agreement by one manufacturer, the lawsuits on which it is based and the reprehensible tactics currently being employed to further its adoption or an attempt to divert attention from the failure of the Clinton Administration and certain municipalities to responsibly enforce existing gun laws and to support proven safety initiatives.

Lastly, we object in the strongest possible terms to the incredible, distasteful efforts by proponents of this agreement to force law enforcement officials to place the extortionate scheme of these officials above the safety of local law enforcement officials by abandoning honest competitive selection of the highest quality firearms available for them in favor of preference to any manufacturer who has succumbed to the litigator’s demands.