States Pitch a Lifestyle to Lure Gun Makers From Their Longtime Homes

[alp227]

For more than a century, the nation’s firearms industry, including iconic brands like Colt, Smith & Wesson and Winchester, has been concentrated in Northeastern and Midwestern states that now have restrictive gun-control laws.

But recently, states like Idaho, Alabama and Montana have presented a novel argument as part of an effort to lure the firearms industry’s high-paying jobs south and west: Gun makers would be happier and more successful among citizens who regularly use firearms than they would be remaining in states trying to limit gun rights.

The approach is the latest twist in the interstate competition for scarce jobs, with hard-pressed states supplementing or even bypassing traditional enticements like tax breaks in favor of pitches that sell a lifestyle: greater personal freedom, low or no state taxes, minimal regulation, the absence of troublesome unions and of course, the unfettered right to bear arms.

“When we approach gun makers, we first make the cultural argument,” said Gov. Dennis Daugaard of South Dakota, a hunter who recruits firearms makers at gun shows. “People in business want to feel their business is wanted and welcome in the communities where they are located. In South Dakota, the culture is there. We don’t regulate firearms businesses out of existence.”

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/us/10guns.html?pagewanted=all

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. Weatherby bugged out of Los Angeles some time ago

We want your jobs but not your products is not a nice environment to work in.

Last I checked, most gun manufacturers were union shops. Moving could change that as well.

[krispos42]

2. I lived in South Dakota

There's a whole lotta nothing between the towns there. A lot of the infrastructure that you need for manufacturing... raw materials, service, custom tooling, parts, etc., would have to come a long way in. And trying to get the experience workers to move out would be a major hassle.


And the labor force for precision manufacturing is on the thin side.




And, of course, their taxes are low because... they suck off the teat of the Northeastern states.


They don't use the money to improve their states or their citizens, they just use the money to advance corporate interests.

[Atypical Liberal]

11. Love that chart!

I just sent it to my conservative mother. Who lives in Georgia.

[MicaelS]

12. I think you're missing the point

I look at those states on the left chart, and I see the states that have the strictest gun control in the US. These states have politicians who decry guns and gun manufacturers, distributors and sellers. They want to severely restrict or outright ban certain guns. In other words they want to cost these companies money. Yet they turn right around and want those high-paying jobs and the tax infrastructure that goes along with the gun manufacturing end of things. So what's really more important to them? The wage and taxes obviously.

IMO, the gun manufacturers should give them a choice..cities and states can have gun control or they can have the jobs and taxes. But they can't have both.

[krispos42]

14. Well, the gun makers were there before the national movement to ban the guns was

The other issue is that, because all gun makers in the country sell nationwide, the number of guns they sell in a state is independent of which state they reside in. Smith and Wesson will sell, X number of guns in Massachusetts whether or not they are located IN Massachusetts, assuming their location is able to produce the same guns in the same numbers with the same quality regardless of location.

[TheWraith]

3. Here's an irony... some here may know that Fabrique Nationale Herstal now owns Browning...

Many of their Browning-branded firearms are now manufactured at FN Herstal's home facilities in Belgium. So an iconic American brand is now partially an import.

But here's the crazy part: Many of FNH's FN branded weapons are now produced at Browning facilities in the US. So if you're buying Browning, you're probably buying something made in Europe, while buying Fabrique Nationale Herstal is buying American.

[ileus]

5. My 25yo BAR was built in Belgium by FN...it's an old relationship.

As a kid we watched the Brownings go from being "belgium brownings" to made in Japan. I don't know how far back the business partnership goes back.

FN has operations based here in Virginia.

I think it's a federal requirement to bid on military contracts that the firearm manufacture must be state side to even be considered.

[SteveM]

10. Relationship goes back at least a century...

Browning long had business dealings with Winchester, but could not come to an agreement with that company to build an auto-loading shotgun or rifle. He took it to Remington, which agreed to manufacture the weapon. Shortly thereafter, he got a better deal with FN Belgium. Legend has it that the town folks there held Browning in great esteem for bringing so many jobs and work to their town.

[DonP]

9. Didn't JMB actually die in the FN offices?

I'm trying to recall the show on his biography, but I think Browning was actually working on the Hi Power design in the FN offices when he passed away.

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. I'd give you odds they still get more sales in the densely populated

NE and upper midwest, than they do in out in the middle of nowhere. There are counties in Nebraska that are larger than Connecticut, with populations the size of a eastern high school.

[gejohnston]

7. good point

In fact, Maryland has more CCW holders than the total population of the county I grew up in, which has the same land area as Mass.

[MicaelS]

6. I think this an excellent idea....

I know I wouldn't have a business in a city or state where I was hated. And I would make it clear to those cities and states with strict gun control, especially Massachusetts, Illinois, California, and New York, that if you want my gun business and the taxes and jobs that go with it, then their gun control laws are unacceptable.

I like what Ronnie Barret did. California banned the Barret .50 rifles, and he stated he would no longer sell or service his rifles to any law enforcement agency in that state. It's his company's policy.

http://www.wmsa.net/news/CNSNews/cns-030609_barrett_boycott.htm

STI has done the same, not just law enforcement but civilians too. They're small potatoes to Barret, but I applaud them.

[DonP]

8. Illinois already lost Les Baer and Springfield Armory is seriously thinking about it

The repetitive demand for a state wide AWB and other Daley inspired legislation finally drove Les Baer to move across the river to Iowa. The 67% bump in income taxes probably didn't help either.

Springfield Armory and several other Quad cities area gun businesses are looking into Iowa and Indiana for possible moves too. The Iowa advantage is they can keep most of their skilled machinists and gunsmiths, since it's just across the Mississippi bridge from Geneseo.

But hell, Illinois doesn't need to keep skilled machinist jobs here, or the local businesses they support. Just let them move out of state. Fuck 'em they make evil guns and somebody else will pick up those military contracts, right? Except they will pick them up somewhere else.

[spin]

13. If If I had a choice and I ran a company, I would want my tax dollars going to support ..

a state that liked what I was manufacturing.