Officials Vote Confidence in Gun Maker

WASHINGTON — Gun maker Smith & Wesson’s pledge to adopt landmark safety and responsibility standards is winning it a lot of business from local government officials.

In the two weeks since President Clinton praised the Springfield, Mass., gun maker for its stance, 65 cities and counties have pledged to make Smith & Wesson their preferred source for police handguns.

Thirty-seven of those local jurisdictions joined the list Friday, including Oakland, Calif.; Kansas City, Mo.; and Buffalo, N.Y.

In an agreement Clinton announced March 17, Smith & Wesson said it would install gun locks on all the weapons it sells, introduce within three years “smart gun” technology permitting weapons to be fired only by their owners and ban sales of its weapons at gun shows without background checks.

The company broke industry ranks and changed its policy in exchange for a promise that it would be dropped from a lawsuit being put together by the federal government on behalf of local public housing authorities.

Last week, 28 cities and counties--including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, St. Louis, Boston and Florida’s Miami-Dade County--said they would give preference in their handgun purchases to Smith & Wesson.