Letitia James Attacks Smith & Wesson
BY Herschel Smith
9 years ago
NYT:
The New York City public advocate on Monday asked federal regulators to investigate whether the gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson had made adequate disclosures in its financial statements.
In an eight-page letter, the public advocate, Letitia James, said the Securities and Exchange Commission should examine whether Smith & Wesson misrepresented or omitted information about how often its products are involved in crimes and what it has done to keep its guns out of the hands of criminals.
Shareholders would want to know whether Smith & Wesson faced heightened regulatory scrutiny or significant litigation risk, Ms. James said in the letter.
Nearly two weeks ago, a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif., left 14 people dead and provoked a fresh outcry about gun violence in America. It also is the third anniversary of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults.
“With the increase in mass shootings, public concern about the proliferation of firearms has animated a national dialogue about gun control measures, interstate gun trafficking, and whether gun manufacturers should take additional steps to ensure that their products do not end up in the hands of criminals,” the letter says. “Smith & Wesson knows that it is at risk of grave reputational harm.”
Ms. James is opening a new avenue in her fight against gun sellers and makers. Earlier this month, she called on TD Bank, a big lender, to stop financing Smith & Wesson. This summer, she convinced the New York City Employee Retirement System, the city’s largest pension fund, to explore divesting itself of its holdings of gun retailers like Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Here is the letter, sponsored by the City of New York because it is hosted on a New York City web site. Ms. James, who makes $165,000 per year at the expense of city taxpayers, and who is almost never on the job to do her job of public advocate, is using her salary, time and staff to fight legitimate, law abiding gun manufacturers by – you guessed it – regulating them to death at the hands of the *.us.gov. What regulation, what law, what knickers-in-a-wad fabricated problem of the day, it matters not. This is what community organizers do. Regulators are the philosopher-kings, and we are the subjects.
No, she isn’t another Bloomberg apparatchik. She is much more progressive than Bloomberg, and gave an anti-Bloomberg speech upon de Blasio’s inaguration so caustic that that even The New York Times berated it. She is next-gen progressive. And like the current administration, she doesn’t mind spending money she didn’t earn from the public coffers to battle what she perceives to be social justice warrior battles.
And we can all say with one voice, “Get a real job and mind your own damn business. We don’t care what you think.” I hope Smith & Wesson buries you.
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On December 15, 2015 at 10:41 am, Jack Crabb said:
What in the world is a Public Advocate, and why is that job worth $165,000 annually?
On December 15, 2015 at 11:52 am, Parnell said:
The real joke is the Public Advocate is third in line for the office of mayor.
On December 15, 2015 at 2:38 pm, Fred_Z said:
A black affirmative action appointment. What a surprise.
On December 15, 2015 at 5:55 pm, Archer said:
“With the increase in mass shootings, public concern about the proliferation of firearms has animated a national dialogue about gun control measures, interstate gun trafficking, and whether gun manufacturers should take additional steps to ensure that their products do not end up in the hands of criminals,” the letter says.
You mean like, I dunno, selling firearms only to *.gov-approved distributors and nobody else, who then distribute only to *.gov-approved licensed dealers (FFLs), who then sell only to *.gov-background-checked individuals?
Seriously, the *.gov has its grubby hands in every step of the business, but Ms. Jones would have us believe the industry is completely unregulated and S&W donates weapons to gangsters and drug cartels to (somehow) make money hand-over-fist from the dead bodies of children.
“Smith & Wesson knows that it is at risk of grave reputational harm.”
No, they don’t. Not if they’re following all applicable laws, which pretty well cover every possible way to provide illicit firearms to dangerous individuals. S&W knows this, and probably will bury Ms. Jones if she tries to set up any other (unreasonable/impractical/impossible) standard for them to adhere to.
On December 16, 2015 at 12:54 am, Sandydog said:
S&W is the company that builds all of the guns that the NRA gives out to its members when they sign up. Everybody knows that. :-)
On December 16, 2015 at 12:49 am, Sandydog said:
If this was the dark days of Tomkins and Saf-T-Hammer, when S&W knelt before Clinton and began installing key locks on their revolvers, the company might respond by once again prostrating itself and making embarrassing promises to ‘behave.’ Under S&W Holding, with management similar to what S&W had when the Smith family ran the company, I don’t think that there’s much to worry about–their reputation speaks for itself.
S&W is just like any other manufacturer, and better than some; They haven’t built anything fully automatic since the ’70s, don’t do much military contracting, and sell only high-quality, higher-cost guns. All of their manufacturing and sales policies adhere strictly to Federal law; They sell only to huge distributors who also adhere to Federal law, who in turn sell to the dealers, upon whom falls the ultimate responsibility of seeing that only legitimate, legal buyers obtain guns.
This woman is sorely deluded in how the firearms industry works–as usual.
On December 16, 2015 at 1:00 am, KR said:
Lets see,
S&W as all gun makers don’t
sell directly to the public. Gun makers have to distribute their products
through State and Federally licensed dealers who sell to people who have to go
through an FBI background check.
Would be nice if idiot politicians like her
would care half as much about a pair of radicalized Islamist savages who lied on
Dept of State Visa forms and came here to kill Americans and how exactly two or
three Federal agencies failed to stop it. Instead she is outraged that murderers
kill with guns they shouldn’t have been here to have.
On December 16, 2015 at 11:28 am, Archer said:
Nah. Keep pols like her ignorant. It makes them easier to work against when they self-identify as idiots.
On December 16, 2015 at 1:14 pm, Jack Crabb said:
Except for the fact that virtually all pols self-identify as idiots yet not much has really been done about them.