Smith & Wesson suspended some Springfield employees based on ATF records

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Gunmaker, Smith & Wesson says it has suspended several employees at its Springfield plant after the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) told them that workers were not allowed to legally own guns.

A statement from the company sent to 22News said only people who can legally own firearms are allowed to work at their facilities.

“We recently suspended a number of employees at our Springfield facility pending an investigation into an ATF notice that they may be prohibited from handling firearms. At Smith & Wesson, we take public safety concerns very seriously and are focused on complying with all applicable laws, rules and regulations and being a responsible member of the community.

In keeping with this commitment, and in addition to our strict safety protocols, we have a strict policy that individuals prohibited from possessing firearms are not permitted to work in our facilities. While we conduct as much due diligence on new and current employees as we are permitted to, we are limited by state and federal employment and privacy laws as to the background checks we may conduct, particularly in Massachusetts. We were recently informed by the ATF that a number of employees working at our Springfield, MA facility may be prohibited persons.

This is because, as a federal law enforcement agency, the ATF has access to records that we do not. This is a known problem that the bipartisan Safer Communities Act was intended to address. This law required the Department of Justice to allow federal firearms licensees, such as us, within 90 days to use the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to conduct background checks on current and prospective employees to provide a thorough review of prohibition factors. This bill was signed into law on June 25, 2022, 684 days ago, and the Department of Justice has yet to implement this congressional mandate and, to our knowledge, currently has no estimate of when it will be implemented. We fully supported this provision because we do not want individuals who are legally prohibited from owning firearms to handle firearms in our facilities, and we strongly encourage this administration to fulfill its duty and provide the industry with the tools to provide the information she needs to conduct thorough background checks and avoid this situation in the future.”

Smith & Wesson Statement