UPDATE: As of this time (6.47 p.m. Central) I’m not aware of any statement having been issued by HS Precision. I’ve been in both telephonic and e-mail communication with the company, and quite frankly I’m baffled by their silence. As I said in my last e-mail to a company representative:
… we really, REALLY need a statement from HS Precision’s top management ASAP. If that doesn’t come today, I don’t know whether the damage will be repairable.
The silence of HS Precision’s management forces me to conclude that one of three things must be true. Either:
1. They haven’t a clue how to manage this situation.
OR
2. They’re caught between a rock and a hard place. If they bow to public sentiment and repudiate Mr. Horiuchi, they risk offending their law enforcement customers, particularly Federal agencies; but if they don’t repudiate him, they risk alienating retail customers, who are probably a significant proportion of their market. They haven’t been able to find a ‘middle way’ that will satisfy both sides whilst minimizing the damage to their company.
OR
3. They regard the average firearm owner as outside their (expensive and fairly ‘exclusive’) target market, and therefore intend to treat our concerns with disdain.
I’ve no idea which of the above is true: but I can’t see any other alternatives. Can you?
I believe that through their inaction and deafening silence today, HS Precision’s management have done their company a grave disservice. I don’t know if any belated reaction in coming days will be able to undo the damage it’s already suffered. I’m very disappointed in them. Certainly, in the days when I was a senior manager and company director, if I’d behaved in such a dilatory and spineless fashion, I’d have been fired on the spot!
Anyway, that’s the situation as of the time of writing. I guess we’ll learn more in due course.
The original post continues below.
I’m aware of the huge uproar in the firearms community about HS Precision‘s use of an endorsement for their tactical rifles by the FBI – specifically, by Mr. Lon Horiuchi. A letter from him appears on the rear cover of their 2008 catalog, shown below (click to enlarge).
Mr. Horiuchi is infamous in shooting circles (perhaps ‘notorious’ would be a better word – apart from the many less polite terms for him in circulation) for his involvement in the Ruby Ridge and Waco incidents, particularly his shooting of Mrs. Vicki Weaver through a door, resulting in her death. She was not armed at the time. Mr. Horiuchi’s actions were later found to be unconstitutional by a Justice Department review (as were the instructions given to the FBI task force by the senior officer on the scene). He was charged with manslaughter in an Idaho court in 1997. The case was transferred to federal court, which dismissed the charge, citing the supremacy clause as grounds. An appeal court reversed this decision, but the local prosecutor then withdrew State charges.
I’m as outraged by Mr. Horiuchi’s conduct at Ruby Ridge as anyone, and I certainly believe that he is guilty of at least a moral offense of the very worst kind. However, no court has ruled on the matter in terms of criminal law. In terms of the US justice system, he, like any of us, has the right to the presumption of innocence unless and until proved guilty.
Nevertheless, Mr. Horiuchi is certainly not someone with whom I’d care to associate. I believe that whoever’s responsible for using his endorsement in HS Precision’s 2008 catalog is guilty of a gross error of judgment, one that is likely to damage the company very severely, given the strength of feeling in the shooting community about Mr. Horiuchi’s actions. However, I’m troubled by the immediate outcry among many shooters, and their threats to boycott the company and refuse to purchase its products. Some have called for HS Precision to be ‘Zumboed’, referring to the pillorying of columnist Jim Zumbo in 2007 for comments that the shooting community found unacceptable.
Let’s face facts. HS Precision, in order to compete for (and eventually win) the FBI competition to select a new tactical rifle, had no choice but to deal with the individual appointed by that agency as the manager of the process. That person happened to be Mr. Horiuchi. It could just as easily have been anyone else. HS Precision won that competition, and are justly proud of the fact. They wanted to advertise their success, and used an endorsement from the competition manager to that effect – probably without anyone in senior management realizing whose name was involved. It’s likely to have been a decision by someone in marketing or public relations, rather than a senior executive. I can imagine them saying to senior management that they’d use a letter from “the FBI program manager”, without even mentioning his name. I’ve been a senior manager myself, so I can well imagine how this might have ‘slipped through the cracks’.
Furthermore, a bad marketing or public relations decision doesn’t affect the quality of HS Precision’s rifles. I’ve handled a few, and they’re uniformly excellent products. I wish I could afford one! Their Short Tactical Rifle is illustrated below.
There are many people involved in their manufacture, who take great pride in their work. I don’t think these craftsmen, shooters all, should be punished for the indiscretion of someone outside their area. The same goes for the company as a whole. Do we want to condemn to oblivion the producer of some of the finest rifles in the country, for an error of judgment?
I hope and trust that HS Precision’s senior management are taking steps to investigate this matter. I called the company to inquire, and was assured that something would be announced shortly (after all, this whole thing only blew up yesterday). I think we should give them time to investigate and take whatever steps they deem appropriate.
I’d hate to see a good company brought down because of one mistake. Let’s by all means look to HS Precision to rectify that mistake, and administer any internal disciplinary measures that may be necessary and appropriate: but, at the same time, let’s be fair. They made a mistake. I’m sure they’re going to do their best to resolve it. Let’s give them time to do so, and let’s acknowledge their honest efforts in that regard.
Peter
"Do we want to condemn to oblivion the producer of some of the finest rifles in the country, for an error of judgment?"
Yes – because their sucessor & peers will better understand what is and what is not acceptable to the shooting community. 'If' their corrective action does not satisfy their customers, another company will take their place. Such is the dynamics of the market.
If HS Precision can stay afloat dealing solely with the FBI and other government agencies, fine. They may, however, find out that the civilian market they lost is somewhat larger.
If HS Precision were selling guns to Mexican drug lords, I think it would be obvious that I shouldn’t do business with them.
Lon Horiuchi, all by himself, has shot more innocent American mothers holding their infants than the Mexican drug lords have. No one, including Horiuchi and the FBI, have disputed that, so none of this “innocent until proven guilty” crap.
I hope that HS Precision can get by on that FBI contract. They won’t be making any sales to me.
I seem to recall the FBI nicknamed their base “camp Vicky” after Horiuchi blew out her brains. I also recall seeing Horiuchi on TV, very shortly after the murder stating the difference between what he did and the FBI rules of engagement were just “semantics”. (that video clip was pulled almost immediately, I have never heard of any other friends who saw it , or any other reference to it.)
Hey, breaking news- Heinrich Himmler’s great grandson is endorsing Walther!
Yes, I am angry- Randy Weaver was set-up, and had his wife and son murdered by the US Government (specifically the Marshal’s Service and the FBI.) -which have never been held accountable.
Peter, please also keep in mind that the reason we don’t have a verdict is because Mr. Horiuchi hid behind the government’s sovereign immunity to avoid trial. By the time the Ninth Circuit overturned his original dismissal, the state prosecutor had changed, and enough time had passed that the new prosecutor didn’t feel he could win a conviction (though the special prosecutor disagreed).
Put it this way: OJ actually was acquitted (as opposed to avoiding trial), but if Cold Steel were to use his endorsement, would you encourage us to show restraint toward them?
I’m not buying it. I’m not a customer of theirs anyway, so the financial point in my case is moot, but I’d not do business with them otherwise unless they were to come up with one hell of an explanation.
The “justice” system, state and national, blew it beginning with the FBI and ending with a whitewash via non-prosecution.
HSP can be proud of a contract without waving a red flag in front of us.
Sorry, Peter, this one doesn’t fly.
“I’d hate to see a good company brought down because of one mistake”
How many FFLs have been raked over the coals, with some put out of business, because of one clerical error on a form?
Horiuchi enjoyed the full protection of agencies funded by our tax dollars to protect him from prosocution for killing Vicky Weaver.
So Horiuchi gets a pass, as do his superiors; that doesn’t mean HS Precision gets a pass. They decided that selling rifles to the FBI was more important than selling rifles to us.
So be it.
I’ve been waiting, but I’ll say what I think, from the POV of someone who has worked a bunch of different places, and worked with marketing guys.
1) Marketing is all too often totally unfamiliar with the market, except in very narrow terms. There is no reason to believe that anyone in the department knew who this guy was other than the title listed on the signature; i.e. “a person qualified to give an endorsement.”
2) No one else reviews this sort of stuff. So just because someone else at HS (some senior management, some of the designers or test personnel, presumably shooters) might know that this could be an issue, there’s no reason they would see it before it goes out the door, and no reason they’d look it over in detail after that.
3) Everyone posting in forums change your thread titles. This is a product endorsement. He’s not a spokeman for the company. Big difference.
4) Most companies are terrible at damage control. It’s Thanksgiving. None of my clients are responding to anything this week. I suspect that the few folks answering the phones (or email) are relatively junior, and have at best some 911 coded emails to their bosses. Who are not looking at email. They would not deign to actually call anyone, because: see #1. They do not get how big a deal it is. (Anecdote: I was at Sprint on 9/11. Late in the day, I am in a meeting about what we should say on the home page — we had phone service knocked out, as well as the whole national disaster thing warranting comment — after an hour of meeting, and remember this is 6 hours after the incident, I had to start all but yelling that the right decision was “Anything! Immediately!” It took another 3 hours before we could actually get approval to put up anything.)
Early next week, I’d start expecting something. THEN you can start judging them for their actions.
I’m holding back in this instance. Consider what a polite respectful email to your slime sucking congress critter would do any time a motion to increase gun control came before him/her/it. especially if they received 500-10,000 in the course of a week. Look what it did to Jim Zumbo.
I’m inclined to attribute this to a totally clueless PR agency. The ensuing brou-ha-ha will alert the company to find another ad agency, and publish an apology on Monday, which I would accept.
Remember people: Never attribute to conspiracy what can be easily explained by simple stupidity.
Security password = gunri, which I’m sure is a Japanese word for a Zen-master-Ninja shooter. I’ll take it. That’s my story, and I’m sticken’ to it.
I hope it is NOT that they “do not want to risk offending their Federal Leo’s”, if the Feds would actually get their panties in a twist over someones lack of respect for Horiuchi , than what does that say about THEM!