Smith and Wesson vs the Gun Bubble

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Smith & Wesson vs. the “Gun Bubble” Team C: Erik Payne, Juan Contreras, and Garrett Cope RES 351 March 20, 2013 Brant Choate Smith & Wesson VS the Gun Bubble Smith & Wesson is one of the top firearms manufacturers in the United States, and one of the only two publically traded. The Company was a pioneer in the handgun industry during the 1800’s and the Smith & Wesson brand is well known among gun buyers (Smith & Wesson, 2013). The company is the creator of many popular pistol calibers still in use today; including the .357 magnum, .38 special, and 40 s&w cartridges. Their product line includes a wide variety of revolvers, the S&W series pistols, hunting rifles (sold under theThomson/Center brand), and the M&P (Military and Police) line of polymer pistols and modern sporting (AR platform) rifles (Smith & Wesson, 2012). S&W also is the top manufactuer of handcuffs in the United States and is trying to push its way into other sporting markets including knives and bicycles (Smith & Wesson, 2013). The S&W brand was severely tarnished in the early 1990’s when the company, then owned by british people, conspired with the Clinton administration to impose fangled and unreliable safety features on all firearms sold (Austin, 2013). This resulted in a ban on all S&W products by gun consumers in America that almost destroyed the company. The company was then sold and the brand has since partially recovered. There are still many people who feel S&W markets their products too heavily towards law enforcement, which when coupled with the memory of their push for biometric technology being implemented into every handgun sold makes them untrustworthy. The Gun Bubble The firearms industry in American is heavily regulated by state and federal laws. The second amendment (which guarantees the right of people to own firearms) is constantly
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