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Smith & Wesson Agrees to Make Safer Guns; Bush Modifies Position

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LOU WATERS, CNN ANCHOR: Gun control advocates are claiming a major victory. America's number-one gunmaker just moments ago announced that it has agreed to make changes to design to prevent its weapons from falling into the wrong hands, to make them safer.

CNN White House correspondent Major Garrett joins us now with details on this breaking new story -- Major.

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Lou, the important thing about this settlement with Smith & Wesson is that, as the nation's largest gun manufacturer, Smith & Wesson is an industry leader. The White House and other people close to this issue expect other gun manufacturers now to follow Smith & Wesson's lead, or expose themselves to litigation. Smith & Wesson avoided litigation today by reaching a settlement that prevents 30 jurisdictions, most of them cities, and the threat of a federal lawsuit dealing with the way it manufactured and sold gun. The main agreement that Smith & Wesson reached with the government is to make their guns safer and prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.

Just moments ago at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Secretary Andrew Cuomo summarized the agreement with Smith & Wesson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW CUOMO, HUD SECRETARY: It mandates, first of all, an impressive array of safety features, including locking devices, child safety features and authorized user technology, that will prevent, once and for all, accidental gun deaths and keep children safe.

It creates a system of authorized dealerships, like we have in so many other industries, that will prevent suspect firearm sales, like store purchasing in sales made without background checks, that make it easier for criminals to get guns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GARRETT: There are many, many details to the settlement. Let me highlight some of the most important ones.

First of all, Smith & Wesson has agreed to provide external locking devices on all handguns within the next 30 days. It's also agreed to create smart gun technology in the next 36 months; that's also to make guns safer.

It also will provide secondary serial numbers on all of its firearms; secondary serial numbers, so they can be traced. What often happens now is the only serial number on most guns is erased by criminals; therefore, it is very difficult to trace the gun.

Other elements of it: Smith & Wesson will require authorized dealers to meet a code of conduct. And it will prevent them from selling their guns at gun shows without a full background check under the Brady Law. Smith & Wesson says there is no time limit on that background check. Currently on Capitol Hill, there is a dispute between 24 and 70 hour -- 72 hours. Smith & Wesson says the background check must be completed, no matter how long it takes, for an authorized dealer to sell a Smith & Wesson firearm.

Also, Smith & Wesson will prevent its dealers from multiple sales of handguns. And if a customer comes in, buys, let's say, for example, five handguns; that customer can only leave the store with one handgun and must wait 14 days to come back to receive the remainder of the guns purchased -- Lou.

WATERS: Major, this major announcement comes at the end of a week of a particularly-harsh rhetoric between the National Rifle Association and the White House. It leads me to wonder why this announcement comes at this particular time. Why now?

GARRETT: Well, it comes at this particular time, I think, for a couple of reasons. White House sources tell CNN that these negotiations have been going on for a good long while. At the announcement of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the chairman and CEO of Smith & Wesson said this was in the company's best financial interest. Clearly, the company wanted to avoid the threat of a lawsuit both from the federal government and all these various jurisdictions.

The gun control rhetoric has been very hot. White House officials are very, very pleased with this announcement because, yet again, it shows the president and his various agencies able to reach over Congress, create solutions without dealing with legislation -- Lou.

WATERS: All right, Major Garrett at the White House where the president will step forward in less than an hour, we understand, from the Oval Office to comment on this announcement by the HUD secretary just a short while ago -- Natalie.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: In recent months, gun supporters have been on the defensive. Now Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush appears to have modified his position on gun control.

CNN's Pat Neal reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAT NEAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): George Bush is distancing himself from the comments of NRA official, Wayne LaPierre, that President Clinton is taking advantage of gun violence to promote his gun control agenda.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The comment that somehow violence, you know, that the president condones violence and death. I don't -- you know, there are ways to debate the issue without casting dispersions on the president like this. I just think -- I think they've gone too far.

NEAL: Those comments reflect what Texas critics call a change in Bush's views in order to broaden his appeal on the national stage.

As a presidential candidate, Bush is promoting a number of gun safety measures he never pushed in Texas, like instant background checks at gun shows, requiring trigger locks, or raising the minimum age for possessing a handgun.

NINA BUTTS, TEXANS AGAINST GUN VIOLENCE: We don't have that in Texas. Ban on high capacity ammunition clips: We don't have that in Texas. Raise the minimum age for handgun possession to 21: We don't have that law in Texas. Trigger locks on handguns: We don't have that law in Texas. Governor Bush has never initiated or worked to pass any of these gun controls in Texas.

NEAL: Last year, when cities across the country were suing gun makers over gun violence, Bush signed legislation to prohibit Texas communities from suing the gun manufacturers. And Bush campaigned for, and won, an end to a hundred-year-old ban on carrying concealed weapons.

Still, many observers here say Bush has staked out a safe position: being pro-gun owner, without being too pro-NRA.

ROSS RAMSEY, "TEXAS MONTHLY": Now, I think he can stay in a fairly moderate position without doing a tap dance against his prior record. I think they've been defendably moderate, even when you take what they've done in Texas to other parts of the country.

NEAL: Bush's campaign says the governor has broken ranks with the NRA many times. He's now looking favorably on many aspects of a gun control proposal sponsored by GOP Governor George Pataki of New York, most of which the NRA opposes.

But Republicans say the flap this week between the NRA and President Clinton has hurt Bush.

SCOTT REED, FMR. DOLE CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Clearly, Wayne LaPierre overshot the runway with his comments earlier in the week. And it's caused the Republicans, and the Republicans in Congress, to be put on the defense over this issue.

NEAL (on camera): Surveys show about twice as many Texas households own guns as compared with homes in the rest of the country. Bush's approach to gun control reflects the sentiments in his state. The question is whether what works here in Texas will play in the rest of the country.

Pat Neal, CNN, Austin. (END VIDEOTAPE)

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