'Summer sizzler'
It has turned into a long, hot summer in Boston. Last week we had two double homicides, bringing to 42 the number of killings this year, or one more than we had all last year. The killings, as always, are concentrated in the city's poorest neighborhoods.
It is all too easy to track the numbers and forget the people like Willie Bendolph, 34, and Jarrel Morris, 18, murdered together this month on Roxbury's notorious Castlegate Road; Cedric Williams, 20, and Kindel Eppinger, 33, two of four men killed in one bloody weekend in July; and William "Biggie" Gaines, 23, the basketball coach killed in front of his players.
As the cops and ministers work the streets in Boston, the gun lobby is working the halls of Congress in Washington. The federal assault-weapons ban expires Sept. 13, and President Bush, his campaign rhetoric of four years ago aside, and the Republican Congress are giving every indication that they will pay their debt to the National Rifle Association crowd and let it die a peaceful death. That would mean UZIs and AK-47s could again be flooding the streets for gang members and drug dealers.
Massachusetts is home to both some of the nation's toughest gun laws and the second-largest US gun company, Smith & Wesson. The story of Springfield-based Smith & Wesson is a case study in why an industry that makes the guns that kill our neighbors will never be our ally in getting those handguns off our streets.
"Summer sizzler," Smith & Wesson's website shouts in hot red-and-yellow type, offering a $25-off coupon for all pistols and revolvers purchased by Aug. 15. Stock up before school starts!
Four years ago Smith & Wesson, an icon of the industry, could have been a hero. In March 2000 the 150-year-old gun maker signed a stunning agreement to settle a raft of government lawsuits, promising to impose strict new rules on all of its dealers. Those who wanted to keep selling Smith & Wesson guns would have to keep computerized records of every sale and store all of their guns -- not just Smith & Wessons -- in a vault. And they would have to limit their customers to purchasing one gun every two weeks.
The Clinton administration hailed the pact as a historic breakthrough that would pressure other manufacturers to follow suit. In fact, just the opposite occurred: Under withering fire from the gun world, Smith & Wesson became a pariah. Sales collapsed and the company waffled. The chief executive who negotiated the deal resigned, and the company was sold at a fire-sale price. Job One for the new owners: renouncing the agreement and getting the company back in the good graces of the gun lobby. And it has worked -- for Smith & Wesson, at least. Last month the company reported firearm sales were up 27 percent for the year; this week the company said it expects first-quarter profits to double.
"The new management has no interest in the responsible sales of guns whatsoever," says Dennis Henigan, legal director of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington. The company didn't return my calls.
The Boston Police cannot say whether Smith & Wesson guns were used in any of the recent killings because so few of the guns used have been recovered. But this we do know: Smith & Wesson is the handgun of choice among America's criminals. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Smith & Wesson's .38-caliber revolver is the handgun traced most often in crimes. The company's 9mm semiautomatic and .357 revolver rank fifth and sixth on the bureau's top 10 list of crime guns.
The gun lobby is united again, having made an example of Smith & Wesson. And it has Bush who, in part, owes his election to the gun lobby. The body count is mounting again in places like Boston, and the assault weapon ban is expiring. But here's to the Second Amendment. Let freedom reign.
Steve Bailey is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at bailey@globe.com or at 617-929-2902.
