Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

WaPo: Beretta starting to look at moving out of Maryland after gun-control push
Hotair ^ | 02/25/2013 | Ed Morrissey

Posted on 02/25/2013 1:28:39 PM PST by SeekAndFind

Earlier today, I linked to a Christian Science Monitor report that the firearms industry had begun to organize in opposition to the recent push for increased gun control, but that the major manufacturers had not yet committed themselves. That situation has changed, reports the Washington Post, at least in Maryland, where Beretta makes it home --- at least for now. The company has begun considering a relocation of its headquarters to a state where its product hasn't been made illegal, and may take hundreds of jobs with them:

Beretta, the nearly 500-year-old family-owned company that made one of James Bond’s firearms, has already invested more than $1 million in the machine and has planned to expand its plant further in Prince George’s County to ramp up production.

But under an assault-weapons ban that advanced late last week in the Maryland General Assembly, experts say the gun would be illegal in the state where it is produced.

Now Beretta is weighing whether the rifle line, and perhaps the company itself, should stay in a place increasingly hostile toward its products. Its iconic 9mm pistol — carried by every U.S. soldier and scores of police departments — would also be banned with its high capacity, 13-bullet magazine.

“Why expand in a place where the people who built the gun couldn’t buy it?” said Jeffrey Reh, general counsel for Beretta.

On the line: at least 300 jobs in Maryland’s Prince George County. That’s enough to worry even Governor Martin O’Malley’s Democratic allies in the state legislature. The Post’s Aaron Davis gets the president of the state Senate, Thomas Miller, to admit that he’s “concerned” about a possible move to “places a lot more friendly to the company than this state.” In the lower chamber, the Democrat representing the district, Del. Joseph Vallario, told the Post that “we want to keep those jobs.” Vallario’s chairing the chamber’s Judiciary Committee, so he has some influence on that outcome, but so far the bill doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

Beretta general counsel Jeffrey Reh reminded the legislature that Beretta once moved a significant facility to Virginia the last time the state tried this, and that the next time might be the last:

“I think they thought we were bluffing” in the 1990s, Reh said. “But Berettas don’t bluff.”

For obvious reasons, Beretta would like to stay put. Moving any kind of business costs money, and manufacturing more than most, and the disruption to production will be considerable. Given the history of hostility toward guns and gun manufacturing by the state’s political class, though, it might end up being costlier to stay than to leave. Reh told the Post that the Italian owner recently visited the facility, and when briefed on the law, told Reh, “There always seems to be a problem with Maryland.”

No company will put up with that forever, and few would stay in a state where most of their product line couldn’t be sold.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Front Page News; Government; US: Maryland
KEYWORDS: banglist; beretta; bluestates; exittax; guncontrol; hittheminthewallet; jobs; manufacturing; maryland; secondamendment; taxes; walletissue
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-79 next last
To: Bryanw92

We have not, we’re thinking about making the state mascot the “jackpine savage”.


21 posted on 02/25/2013 2:02:57 PM PST by exnavy (Fish or cut bait ...Got ammo, Godspeed!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Come on down south to Virginia.


22 posted on 02/25/2013 2:03:57 PM PST by ScottinVA (Gun control: Steady firm grip, target within sights, squeeze the trigger slowly...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: yarddog
"Does he really mean 15 round magazine?"

No, he doesn't know the difference. And anyone who doesn't know the difference shouldn't be posting on this forum. Bullets are to cartridges as flour is to bread as cement is to concrete, etceteras. They may not have the capability of learning the language.

23 posted on 02/25/2013 2:10:58 PM PST by Buffalo Head (Illigitimi non carborundum)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: ScottinVA

All they have to do is move to the other side of the river and their employees can commute.


24 posted on 02/25/2013 2:15:36 PM PST by BubbaBasher ("Liberty will not long survive the total extinction of morals" - Sam Adams)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

"Get in the cage, bird, we're outta here.

25 posted on 02/25/2013 2:26:18 PM PST by Defiant (If there are infinite parallel universes, why Lord, am I living in the one with Obama as President?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GeronL

Another yes, come to Texas.


26 posted on 02/25/2013 2:44:40 PM PST by sockmonkey (Of Course I didn't read the article. After all, this is FreeRepublic..)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Paladin2
The tax vulture LIBs already have in Maryland ( THE Freak state). When we left that LIB hellhole last year we had to pay 3.5 % "exit" tax on the sale of our house. It was well worth it. May everyone who is not a moonbat asshat leave that crummy jurisdiction.
27 posted on 02/25/2013 2:46:57 PM PST by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Open letter from the Texas Attorney General:

Here in Texas, you will have the liberty and the opportunity to achieve your dreams. On top of that, we have no income tax, yet still manage to have a multi-billion dollar budget surplus.

We have right to work laws and a reasonable regulatory environment. Texas has created more than 275,000 jobs in the last year alone! And we’ll fight like hell to protect your rights.

You’ll also get to keep more of what you earn and use some of that extra money to buy more ammo.

I hope to see you soon in Texas. In the meantime, sign up to show your support for our second amendment rights.

Sincerely,Attorney General of Texas


28 posted on 02/25/2013 3:19:47 PM PST by TexasRedeye (Eschew obfuscation.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hoodat

We would welcome the fine folks at Beretta with open arms (pun intended) plus Georgia’s a right to work state . . . a win win for sure.


29 posted on 02/25/2013 3:44:15 PM PST by rhubarbk (Proud Member Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club 1968-1969)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: hal ogen

Would this “exit tax” be exempt if you were staying in the state?


30 posted on 02/25/2013 4:03:22 PM PST by BipolarBob (Happy Hunger Games! May the odds be ever in your favor.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Get out of Marxist Maryland, run by Marxists O’Malley and Miller, two betrayers of a once great state.

Come to Virginia where we are still free, though most black, Hispanic and white liberals voted into office Tim Kaine (as governor and now senator), Jim Webb, Mark Warner, Jim Moran, his brother Brian, red-green state senator Addam Ebin, now Rep. Gerald Connelly (who missed his real place in history by a couple decades, Nazi Germany), and a couple loud-mouthed jerks down in the Tidewater region.

Illegal Hispanic immigrants have more power in ultra-liberal Montgomery County through their tax-payer funded Casa de Maryland than does the average working man or woman of any group. Casa gave us the far-left Dept. of Justice thug Perez, head of the Civil Rights Division, a man who never met a white middle-class person he didn’t hate.

Get out of Maryland and let it sink deeper into the economic and political cesspool it is now in. Maybe in the future, when the people realize that they have hit bottom, some will wake up and throw off the marxists and their political cronies.

I was born and raised in Baltimore. Used to know honest politicians back in the old days. Now I wouldn’t know where to find one. We used to call Maryland “The Free State”. Not anymore.

Just try to protect yourself against the rising tide of criminals and you’ll learn why you are no longer “free”. Try to live a safe life in Prince Georges County. It ain’t gonna happen. Their unofficial slogan to potential newcomers is, “Come to PG County and die!”

Here in Virginia, we don’t put up with that shit despite the liberals wanting to import it.

As Shania Twain would sing, “Come on over, come on in”.


31 posted on 02/25/2013 4:21:59 PM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

They can come to Florida!

We want them!


32 posted on 02/25/2013 4:25:11 PM PST by sarasmom (The obvious takes longer to discover for the obtuse.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sarasmom

Especially up in the Panhandle. Eglin AFB is where the Beretta was first chosen and beat out all the other brands.

The Army insisted that they should do the testing and eventually came up with the same results.


33 posted on 02/25/2013 4:28:45 PM PST by yarddog (One shot one miss.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Kind of an odd thought. Wonder if history will write that the gun manufacturers moving to red states will be part of how sides were drawn in CWII.

Being a life long flyover red state resident, I’d damn sure rather have them move here and keep making product.


34 posted on 02/25/2013 4:31:34 PM PST by IamConservative (The soul of my lifes journey is Liberty!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: yarddog

The Panhandle might be perfect!
Close to Alabama and Mississippi.


35 posted on 02/25/2013 4:51:51 PM PST by sarasmom (The obvious takes longer to discover for the obtuse.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Better late than never.


36 posted on 02/25/2013 4:52:38 PM PST by elkfersupper ( Member of the Original Defiant Class)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BipolarBob
My understanding is that if you stay in the state (stay for some reason I can't fathom) you get it back if you buy another equal or more value house in maryland, ( THE Freak state.
37 posted on 02/25/2013 4:56:35 PM PST by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

RE: Here in Virginia, we don’t put up with that shit despite the liberals wanting to import it.

Then why did Virginia vote for gun grabbing Obama last November?


38 posted on 02/25/2013 5:00:30 PM PST by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: USMCPOP
The Fed probably hires and fires that many in a day.

Hires yes, but does not fire.

39 posted on 02/25/2013 5:25:54 PM PST by neocon1984
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Buffalo Head
...anyone who doesn't know the difference [bullets vs cartridges] shouldn't be posting on this forum.

If FR were solely a firearms forum, I'd agree with you, but it's not. There are over three hundred thousand people with Freeper accounts, and not all of them have basic firearms education.

Why not give them a hand up, and help them to raise their knowledge level on firearms? We're all in this together.

40 posted on 02/25/2013 5:55:40 PM PST by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-79 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson