SHULTZ FILES THE COOP AT S&W.

The press release came in by e-mail from Ken Jorgensen, the Director of Marketing and Communication at Smith & Wesson. It was short and to the point.

"George C. Colclough has been named President of Smith & Wesson, replacing Ed Shultz. Shultz also serves as President of Murray, Inc., a company that has now been sold by Tomkins PLC. He will remain President and part of the management team for Murray's new owners.

"Colclough is a 25-year employee of Smith & Wesson, most recently serving as Vice President of Administration. He is a graduate of St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York, and received a law degree from Western New England College of Law, Springfield, Massachusetts. Colclough served with the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam. He was on active duty as a Ranger-qualified infantry officer in the U.S. Army from 1968 until 1975 and served in the Army Reserve until 1999 when he retired as a Colonel. He is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association."

When I interviewed Ed Shultz after he signed the HUD pact with the Clinton Administration (G&A HANDGUNS, July 2000), he maintained that the decision to sign the agreement was entirely his. He said there was no pressure from Tompkins PLC, the British owners of Smith & Wesson, for him to sign the agreement. I believed him on that issue at the time and still believe his statement today. One of the reasons I believe that Tomkins allowed him free reign as President and CEO of Smith & Wesson is because I have experienced a similar management style from our parent company, which is also a British company.

Shortly before I became Editor of this magazine, our company, Petersen Publishing, was sold to Emap, a British-based multinational publishing conglomerate. In order to deal with the varied cultural differences from country to country, Emap has created a very decentralized management structure. Our Outdoor Group Vice President, Skip Johnson, an American who is as independent as anyone who rides a Harley and shoots a .45, calls the shots for the group. The only dictum I have ever been given from our upper management was to make G&A HANDGUNS the best handgun magazine of its kind.

Since the interview with Shultz, I have talked with various sources at Smith & Wesson, and they all concur that it was a unilateral decision on Shultz's part to sign the HUD pact. The people underneath him in management in Springfield, Massachusetts, were not consulted prior to his decision to sign the agreement on behalf of the company.

My decision as Editor to continue to review Smith & Wesson products was not a popular one with many of our readers. The controversy it has caused has been aired in this column and in our "Letters" section. While Shultz claimed in my interview that he was prepared for the backlash that would come from American gun owners, I really don't believe he fully appreciated how strongly we feel about our right "to keep and bear arms."

In my opinion, his decision to sign the HUD pact was wrong and it would destroy one of the best-known brands in the firearms industry. In the interview, Shultz said, "I would much rather be put out of business by our customers than by our opponents." Perhaps Shultz, whose manufacturing expertise rescued Smith & Wesson from its near demise in 1992, felt he could no longer pay the lawyers' pound of flesh.

What most people did not realize was that Shultz was only a part-time CEO of Smith & Wesson. He spent most of his time in Tennessee where he was also President of a much larger Tomkins holding, Murray, Inc. Murray is a manufacturer of lawn and garden tractors, lawn mowers, snow blowers and Sno Racers.

With Shultz's departure from Smith & Wesson, there is no one in Springfield that had anything to do with the HUD pact. Shultz has left a stain on Smith & Wesson that it may never recover from in the eyes of the American gun owner. The new President, Colclough, will have all of his expertise as a lawyer and manager tested as he tries to deal with the HUD pact, which carries the force of a court order that Shultz obligated Smith &Wesson to abide by.

Shultz and Shultz alone should be held responsible for the signing of the HUD pact, not the people who work for Smith & Wesson and produce a quality product. The good folks at Smith & Wesson need your support; now is the time to give it to them.

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Author:	SMITH, KERBY C.
Publication:	Handguns
Date:	Jan 1, 2001
Words:	753
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