An interview with Ruger's president: translating the legacy; A tenacious pro-gun fighter, Steve Sanetti is committed to the future of Ruger

Shooting Industry, Oct, 2005 by Russ Thurman

SI: Like much of our customer base, those in the industry are also aging. Who will be running the industry in the future?

Sanetti: We faced that question at Sturm, Ruger & Co., which was clearly dominated by Bill Ruger Sr. Talk about a difficult challenge. Here was Bill Ruger, an icon of American industry, a legendary figure who ran the company into his mid-80s. We were all asking ourselves, what's going to happen after Bill Ruger and how can we possibly fill his shoes?

Well, when you look around, you find that over the years we really have accumulated a lot of talent who have a willingness to cooperate and want to succeed. Perhaps we don't have the lone entrepreneurial giants we had years ago, but we had a staff meeting here and I looked around the room and fully half the people in the room were not even employed by the company five years ago, yet here they are at staff level positions at Sturm, Ruger. These are good, hard-working people; they're smart, they know modern manufacturing methods, they know information technology and computers. I came out of that meeting energized by the fact that young people are still coming? into the industry and they're determined to make their mark.

SI: If you had the opportunity to address the entire industry, what would you say?

Sanetti: Don't let up. With the success in the last presidential election, the failure of lawsuits against the industry and the impending success of preemption legislation, plus gun-control legislation doesn't seem to be at the top of anyone's agenda, it's so easy to become complacent.

Now is a particularly good time for us to reaffirm, as an industry, that we need to continue working together. We must make sure bad laws aren't passed, that good laws are passed, that our public relation campaign continues. We must deliver the message that we are a values-oriented part of American culture. Now is not the time for complacency.

SI: What motivates you?

Sanetti: I have a photograph of Bill Ruger Sr. staring at me on my desk everyday (laughing). He drove me for the first 24 years and he continues to drive me now. I can't think of a more worthy mentor than Bill Ruger. He and I just seemed to hit it off early on and we shared a special bond. He recognized me as a gun enthusiast. I recognized him as a man who knew what American shooters wanted and who built quality into every product and made it at a price they could afford. That's what drives me. That's the challenge I see. That's what drives Steve Sanetti, trying to meet Bill Ruger's expectations for what this company is and will continue to be in this century.

SI: What makes you the happiest?

Sanetti: Being able to do what I love. I spend a lot of time at local gun shows trying to buy parts in order to restore the older military guns I've "sporterized," ruined, really. There is still a strong bond in shooting that my dad and I share and I have managed to pass this down to my son and daughter. We love plinking and informal trapshooting. And sometimes, I just like to spend day at the range with some of the old guns that started all this.