[h=3][/h]
S & W K-22.
In March 2000 Smith & Wesson was the only major gun manufacturer to sign an agreement with the
Clinton Administration.[SUP]
[6][/SUP] The company agreed to numerous safety and design standards as well as limits on the sale and distribution of its products. Gun clubs and gun rights groups responded to this agreement by initiating large-scale
boycotts of Smith & Wesson by refusing to buy their new products and flooding the firearms market with used S&W guns.[SUP]
[6][/SUP][SUP]
[7][/SUP][SUP]
[8][/SUP] After a 40% sales slide,[SUP]
[9][/SUP] the sales impact from the boycotts led Smith & Wesson to suspend manufacturing at two plants.[SUP]
[10][/SUP] The success of the boycott led to a Federal Trade Commission antitrust investigation's being initiated under the Clinton administration,[SUP]
[8][/SUP] targeting gun dealers and gun rights groups, which was subsequently dropped in 2003.[SUP]
[11][/SUP] This agreement signed by Tomkins PLC ended with the sale of Smith & Wesson to the Saf-T-Hammer Corporation. The new company (Smith and Wesson Holding Corporation), which publicly renounced the agreement, was received positively by the firearms community.[SUP]
[12][/SUP]
[h=3]Acquisition by Saf-T-Hammer[/h] On 11 May 2001, Saf-T-Hammer Corporation acquired Smith & Wesson Corp. from Tomkins PLC for US$15 million, a fraction of the US$112 million originally paid by Tomkins. Saf-T-Hammer assumed US$30 million in debt, bringing the total purchase price to US$45 million.[SUP]
[13][/SUP][SUP]
[14][/SUP] Saf-T-Hammer, a manufacturer of gun locks and other firearms safety products, purchased the company with the intention of incorporating its line of security products into all Smith & Wesson firearms in compliance with the 2000 agreement.
The acquisition of Smith & Wesson was chiefly brokered by Saf-T-Hammer President Bob Scott, who had left Smith & Wesson in 1999 because of a disagreement with Tomkins’ policies. After the purchase, Scott became the president of Smith & Wesson to guide the 157-year-old company back to its former standing in the market.[SUP]
[9][/SUP]
On 15 February 2002, the name of the newly formed entity was changed to Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation.
