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Smith & Wesson

manufacturer of firearms and BB guns in the United States

Smith & Wesson (S&W) is an American manufacturer of firearms, ammunition and restraints. The corporate headquarters are in Springfield. Smith & Wesson was founded in 1852 and is now a unit of American Outdoor Brands Corporation.

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Quotes

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1993

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2004

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  • The Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation, the nation's oldest maker of handguns, named Dennis Bingham chairman after the departure of James Minder, whom a newspaper reported served prison time in the 1950's and 1960's. Mr. Minder offered to resign this month after telling the board he spent 15 years in prison in the 1950's and 1960's for armed robberies and an attempted escape from prison, The Arizona Republic reported.
  • When he picked up the phone at his Scottsdale, Ariz., home last month, James Joseph Minder realized it was the call he'd been dreading for the past 20 years.
    A reporter with the Arizona Republic had an urgent question for the 74-year-old chairman of Smith & Wesson Holding Corp.: Was he the notorious felon known as the "Shotgun Bandit" in Michigan decades ago?
    Mr. Minder felt a flash of fear. At first he insisted the reporter had a case of mistaken identity. "I told him, 'I'm not that person,'" he recalls. He confirmed his name and date of birth. Then, they hung up.
    But after talking to his wife of 28 years, Mr. Minder says he decided that "I had better tell the truth."
    Mr. Minder quickly informed the other members of the company's board and, at the next meeting, tendered his resignation as chairman.
  • Gunmaker Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. yesterday stood by board member and former chairman James J. Minder despite revelations that the 74-year-old executive spent more than a decade in prison for using a sawed-off shotgun to commit holdups in the 1950s. The company said yesterday that Minder, who stepped down as chairman earlier in the week, will remain on the board of directors.
  • The future of the chairman of handgun maker Smith & Wesson was in question on Thursday night after it turned out he knew more about guns than the company might have liked: he once carried out a string of armed robberies holding a sawn-off shotgun. James Joseph Minder's criminal past emerged this month in newspapers in Detroit and Arizona, which reported he spent 15 years in prison in the 1950s and 1960s for the robberies and an attempted prison escape. Mr Minder was quoted by a Massachusetts newspaper on Thursday as saying he had voluntarily resigned at a directors' meeting on Monday as he felt it was "the best thing, given the circumstances".
    • Buckley, Neil (February 26, 2004). "Past catches up with Smith & Wesson top gun". Financial Times: p. 1. 
  • The head of America's oldest gun maker, Smith & Wesson, has resigned after a local newspaper exposed his past as a convicted armed robber. It emerged that James Joseph Minder, 74, appointed as chairman just a month ago, spent more than a decade in prison in the 1950s and 1960s and had even attempted a jailbreak. As a convicted felon, he is not allowed to carry a firearm.
    Mr Minder's convictions came to light in the Arizona Republic newspaper.
    According to the report, he used a sawn-off shotgun to commit eight hold-ups wearing a trademark hat, white scarf and trench coat. The robberies were at a bank, several drugstores, and a jewellery shop in the Detroit area. He was not very successful, and was arrested several times, as well as serving time for his attempted escape from prison.
  • While recognizing the very serious mistakes in his early life, the board believes that Mr. Minder has led an exemplary life for 35 years and has provided tremendous services to the community. Based on this, and other successful business experience, the board believes he should and can continue to provide invaluable input to Smith & Wesson within both strategic planning and the ongoing drive toward operational excellence.
  • This story ends with an embarrassing moment in February 2004. That was when executives at Smith & Wesson, the firearms manufacturer, found out their new board chairman, 74, had spent a dozen years in prison for armed robbery — armed with a Smith & Wesson pistol, actually.
    Naturally, the board chairman faced some questions. For one: Why didn’t you mention this to the company?
    “They never asked,” he said.

2006

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  • It is hard to imagine a company sinking as low as Smith & Wesson, the legendary arms maker that equipped soldiers from the Civil War to Vietnam and 98 percent of American police forces.
    Just two years ago, the company's chairman was found to be a convicted felon: he had failed to disclose spending 15 years in jail for armed robbery. Federal investigators were looking into accounting irregularities, and the company's stock was stuck at $1.50 a share.
    Adding to the company's woes, American soldiers for the last decade have carried Italian-made Berettas, while most police forces long ago switched to handguns from Glock, an Austrian company.

2012

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  • The four weapons that authorities say were used in the massacre at a Colorado theater showing of the latest Batman movie included a popular semiautomatic rifle, a .223-caliber assault-style rifle with a 100-round drum magazine. The suspect also had two .40-caliber Glock handguns and a 12-gauge Remington Model 870 pump shotgun. In the past 60 days, police said, Holmes bought more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition, at gun shops and over the Internet, including:
    * 3,000 rounds of .223-caliber ammunition for the rifle. It was described as an AR-15-type weapon built by Smith and Wesson.
    * 3,000 rounds of .40-caliber ammunition for the Glock handguns.
    * 300 rounds for the shotgun....
    Officials told NBC News that all four were purchased legally, beginning in May, from two national chain stores: Gander Mountain Guns and Bass Pro Shops.
  • Smith & Wesson is one of many firearms manufacturers to produce a version of the AR-15, marketing more than a dozen models that range in price from about $700 to $2,000.
    The weapon is popular among collectors, military veterans and target shooters who say it is easy to handle and can be modified in numerous ways. Some soldiers call it “a Barbie doll for men” because it has a wide range of accessories and replacement parts, including different styles of barrels, stocks, magazines and scopes.
  • Holmes’s use of Smith & Wesson’s M&P15 assault rifle demonstrates the clear and present danger of a gun designed for war and ruthlessly marketed for profit to civilians.
    In early 2006, Smith & Wesson announced that it had begun shipping the first of its M&P15 rifles. The M&P (Military & Police) “tactical rifle” was the first long gun produced by a company that had been long known as a handgun manufacturer. According to Shooting Industry, the new rifle was “specifically engineered to meet the needs of global military and police personnel, as well as sporting shooters.”
    The handgun company’s turn to assault rifles was a stark example of the gun industry’s relentless militarization of the civilian market. By 2006, military-style semiautomatic assault rifles had become one of the mainstays of the civilian gun market. Smith & Wesson did not make rifles. But it had successfully marketed a line of M&P semiautomatic handguns to military, police, and civilian customers. Its executives decided to introduce their own line of Military & Police assault rifles. Based on the AR-15/M-16 design, these “tactical rifles” would be heavily pitched to civilians.
  • Last Friday, 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed 26 students and teachers at Sandy Hook School with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. Much of the ensuing debate has focused on ways to regulate and potentially ban weapons like these. So, how many auto-loading rifles actually exist in America?
    In its 2011 report “The Militarization of the U.S. Civilian Firearms Market,” the non-partisan Violence Policy Center noted that “selling militarized firearms to civilians—i.e., weapons in the military inventory or weapons based on military designs—has been at the point of the industry’s civilian design and marketing strategy since the 1980s.” And in its 2011 annual report to investors, Smith & Wesson Holding Company noted that there was a $489 million domestic, non-military market for “modern sporting rifles,” a euphemism for auto-loading, assault-style rifles. Modern sporting rifles are perhaps the fastest-growing segment of the domestic long gun industry. From 2007 to 2011, according to the Freedom Group’s most recent annual report, domestic consumer long gun sales grew at a compound annual rate of 3 percent; modern sporting rifle sales grew at a 27 percent rate.

2014

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  • Political and other factors also can affect our performance. Concerns about presidential, congressional, and state elections and legislature and policy shifts resulting from those elections can affect the demand for our products. For example, we experienced strong consumer demand for our firearm products following a new administration taking office in Washington, D.C. in 2009. In addition, speculation surrounding increased gun control at the federal, state, and local level and heightened fears of terrorism and crime can affect consumer demand for our products.
  • Smith & Wesson Holding Corp has agreed to pay $2.03 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges its employees and representatives bribed foreign officials to supply firearms to military and law enforcement departments overseas. The SEC said on Monday that sales staff at the Springfield, Massachusetts-based company engaged in a "pervasive" effort to win contracts from 2007 to 2010 by authorizing or making illegal payments or providing gifts to government officials in Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey, Nepal and Bangladesh. In one instance, Smith & Wesson approved a sale of 548 pistols to Pakistani police after its agent, who was hired in 2008, notified the company he would give cash and more than $11,000 worth of guns to police officials to complete the deal, the SEC said.
    • Stempel, Jonathan (July 28, 2014). "Smith & Wesson settles SEC bribery case over firearms sales". Reuters. 
  • The Massachusetts-based company has agreed to pay the U.S. government $2 million for bribing officials in Pakistan, Indonesia and other countries as it tried to sell firearms to military and law enforcement agencies. The Securities and Exchange Commission says the violations took place between 2007 and 2010...In one case, the SEC says Smith & Wesson provided more than $11,000 worth of guns as a gift to Pakistani police officials there. That deal won the gun maker a contract to sell 548 pistols to the police department for a profit of $107,852. While that was the only corrupt contract ultimately fulfilled, the SEC says the company also tried to secure sales contracts by bribing officials at an Indonesian police department, as well as foreign officials in Turkey, Nepal and Bangladesh.
  • A Pakistani police department received a cache of guns from U.S. gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson in return for a deal to sell hundreds of pistols to cops in the South Asian country, one of numerous attempts to bribe officials in developing economies, U.S. regulatory officials said on Monday. The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, prohibits companies from bribing officials to make sales even if it is common practice to do so in some countries....
    The company said in its latest financial earnings report last month it was the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into FCPA violations as far back as 2010, the same year the SEC informed the company it was being investigated for “any violations of the federal securities law.”
    “We are cooperating fully with the SEC in this matter and have undertaken a comprehensive review of company policies and procedures,” the company said in the filing.
  • Smith & Wesson, the US firearms manufacturer, has paid more than $2m to the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly bribing foreign officials to win contracts to supply arms to overseas police and military forces, the SEC said on Monday.

2015

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  • Gun stocks are surging, even as America mourns another mass shooting and Hillary Clinton vows to restrict sales.
    Popular gun companies Smith & Wesson (SWHC) and Sturm Ruger (RGR) are among the best stocks in America in 2015. It's a reminder of just how profitable these businesses are.
    Smith & Wesson has skyrocketed over 80% this year. To put that in perspective, if the stock were in the S&P 500, it would be the second best performer this year, behind only Netflix (NFLX)....
    This stellar performance comes in a year when many stocks have tanked....
    The reason investors like gun stocks is simple: people are buying a lot of guns.
    Sales hit a record for Smith & Wesson in 2014 and for Sturm Ruger in 2013.
  • The suspects arrived at the Inland Regional Center at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, armed with the four guns and wearing masks. Chief Burguan said the suspects were wearing “tactical vests,” with pockets for spare magazines and other equipment.
    The two handguns that were recovered were bought by Mr. Farook, and all four weapons were bought legally, Chief Burguan said. A senior federal law enforcement official said the assault rifles were bought by a third person who is not considered a suspect.
    Officials said the two assault rifles were variants of the AR-15, the semiautomatic version of the military M-16 rifle; one was made by DPMS Panther Arms, and the other was a Smith & Wesson M&P model, a designation meaning military and police. The senior law enforcement official said one handgun was made by Llama, and the other by Smith & Wesson.
  • The suspects in the San Bernardino holiday party shooting were armed with four guns, an explosive device and several magazines of ammunition in a “well-planned” attack, police and federal officials said.
    Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, a U.S.-born health inspector for San Bernardino County, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, were carrying two .223-caliber assault rifles and two semi-automatic handguns...
    San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said the two .223-caliber assault rifles were a DPMS model and a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 model, while the two semi-automatic hand guns were manufactured by Llama and Smith & Wesson.

2016

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2017

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2018

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  • Stocks were up Thursday for American Outdoor Brands, the company that makes the AR-15 rifle used in the Florida school shooting that claimed 17 lives.
    The company’s shares closed up 1.49%, netting the company an additional $8.8 million on the day.
    The Associated Press reported that accused gunman Nikolas Cruz used a Smith & Wesson M&P15 rifle – a variant of the AR-15 – during his allegedly shooting spree at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday.
    Smith & Wesson, which was founded in 1852, is a Springfield, Mass.-based holding of American Outdoor Brands....
    Shares of American Outdoor Brands closed 5.6% higher on Wednesday, the day of the shooting. It’s not uncommon for gun maker shares to rise following a mass shooting as people are likely to stock up fearing potential gun control measures.
    This is the third time an M&P15 has been used in a mass shooting in the United States.
    James E. Holmes, who was convicted of killing 12 and wounding 70 in the 2012 Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting, used a Smith & Wesson M&P15 rifle. An illegally modified Smith & Wesson M&P15 Sport rifle was recovered by law enforcement officials after the 2015 San Bernardino shooting, where 14 people were killed.
  • Smith & Wesson was in the midst of getting new leadership, having been further shaken when its chairman, James Minder, proved to have served time in prison for a string of armed robberies while a journalism student at the University of Michigan. The young Minder had started with one of his future company's revolvers but had then opted for a sawed-off shotgun.
  • Beginning Thursday, a group of students will march westward a quarter of the way across Massachusetts in the latest act of a national, youth-led campaign to save lives and change the conversation about gun violence....
    The activists have two main goals. The first is to get Smith & Wesson to agree to stop manufacturing military-style weapons like the M&P 15, an AR-15-style rifle that has been used in a number of recent high-profile shootings, including in Parkland, Florida, in February, in San Bernardino, California, in 2015, and in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012.
    The second is for Smith & Wesson to donate $5 million to study gun violence and other crimes involving the company’s firearms.

See also

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