==================BEGIN FORWARDED MESSAGE================== >Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 09:15:21 +1030 >From: SSAA <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: NEWS - USA Glock refuses to sign HUD deal World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting - Mailing list _________________________________________________ The Atlanta Journal- Constitution Smyrna-based gun maker rejects settlement on guns Arthur Brice and Alfred Charles - Staff Wednesday, March 22, 2000 Smyrna-based Glock Inc. has decided not to join a handgun settlement that the federal government reached last week with Smith & Wesson, the nation's largest firearm manufacturer. Glock officials made the decision Tuesday afternoon during a one-hour conference call between the firm's Smyrna manufacturing plant and headquarters in Austria. The ultimate decision was made by Gaston Glock, the company chairman and inventor of the pistol that bears his name, said Paul F. Jannuzzo, Glock Inc. vice president and general counsel. "It's going to be more expensive this way, but we're doing it because our company is run by one man and he's a highly principled individual," Jannuzzo said from his Marietta home. "He's just simply not going to kowtow to this kind of extortion." The company's decision comes as Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell and other big city mayors are expected to announce a plan today to purchase weapons only from firearm manufacturers that agree to install safety devices. Campbell is scheduled to make the announcement during a joint news conference in Washington, D.C., with Andrew Cuomo, secretary of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department, and mayors of Miami, Detroit and nearly a dozen other major cities. The cities, which purchase firearms for their law enforcement officers, hope to use their combined buying power to try to force the nation's gun manufacturers to follow the lead of Smith & Wesson and sign on to last week's landmark pact that requires new handgun safety devices. Glock could be affected because more than half of all U.S. law enforcement departments use the company's weapons. HUD is involved because there are 3,200 public housing authorities nationwide that purchase handguns for their officers. In exchange for last week's agreement, the Clinton administration and 15 of the 29 municipalities that have filed suit against U.S. gun manufacturers agreed to drop pending litigation against Smith & Wesson. Atlanta is one of the cities that filed suit. "This is a beginning step toward making our communities safer," said Campbell, who spent much of Tuesday attending the funeral for slain Fulton County Sheriff's Deputy Ricky Kinchen, gunned down last week while attempting to serve a warrant. Campbell's office said he has already issued an executive order stating the city's preference for buying guns from manufacturers that agree to install safety measures. Glock executive Jannuzzo, who participated in the secret negotiations that led to the agreement, said he heard from scores of police officers and other Glock enthusiasts Tuesday. "It was 197 to 5 against the deal," Jannuzzo said. "Cops don't like this any better than any of us. They don't like the idea of preferences. The most important thing is user confidence. If they have to buy a gun because the government blackmailed them, I don't think it inspires that kind of confidence." ===================END FORWARDED MESSAGE===================
