Smith & Wesson NRA and NSSF over the issue of smart guns, thousands of retailers and tens of thousands of firearms consumers boycotted Smith & Wesson. CEO Ed Shultz, who negotiated the deal, was forced out in September of that year. By December 2000, the company's stock price was 19 cents per share. Smith & Wesson dropped its smart gun plans after nearly being driven out of business. On May 11, 2001, Saf-T-Hammer Corporation acquired Smith & Wesson Corp. from Tomkins plc for US$15 million, a fraction of the US$112 million originally paid by Tomkins. Saf-T-Hammer assumed US$30 million in debt, bringing the
Smith & Wesson Model 1 White held the patent for a "Bored-through" cylinder, a component needed for this new invention, the two partners approached White to manufacture a newly designed revolver-and-cartridge combination. Rather than make White a partner in their company, Smith and Wesson paid him a royalty of $0.25 on every "Model 1" revolver that they made. It would become White's responsibility to defend his patent in any court cases which eventually led to his financial ruin, but was very advantageous for the new Smith & Wesson Company. The Model 1 had three "issues" or major variants, with each subsequent issue introducing significant technical