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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.
I agree. The Texas Panhandle would be PERFECT!
I like the Texas panhandle except for two things: The wind and the feed lots.
We have a lot of fools when it comes to electing the president. Factors: Race, ethnic race and white guilt, plus a heaping serving of Dumb as Dogshit.
We have a Republican-light governor and if Ken Cuccinelli wins in the future, watch out. It’s cleanout the leftist cesspool of the Democrats with dynamite time.
C’mon down to Texas!!!
I do not concur with your position. People with less than average knowledge about a subject should not post opinions or erroneous facts about that subject on any forum. They should lurk and learn rather than add confusion and misinformation.
To let misinformation on this forum to go uncorrected is akin to not correcting your children's grammar or language.
Smith and Wesson collapsed into a pile of compromise to the Clinton Administration...and they paid for it.
I guess gun makers learned their lesson about selling out the second amendment for some radical leftist approval. I only wish the other limo-liberal American CEO’s would learn the lesson of compromising with the commies. Share holders should wake up. Unless they are in the business of gay sex, their CEO’s are way too invested in radical craziness.
LOL!
We can’t all crowd ourselves into Texas!
Best to start with a sustainable broad base...
You might be surprised.
A study was once done, where it was calculated that the entire population of the planet could comfortably fit inside the borders of Texas, divided into units of no more than three people, each living in standard three bedroom houses.
Trust me, we've got plenty of room :-)
Gee, maybe you can get JimRob to craft a new rule to that effect. Why, he oughta just ban people for having the audacity to comment on subjects in which they're not expert!
Why stop at the grammar, punctuation, and spelling police? We need to have the terminology police, and they need to be deputized with their own zot guns, dadgumit!!
I've never passed through there myself, so I'm just funnin'. I do remember the feed lots in Central California, though. Had to roll up the windows every time I drove through there!
The “13-bullet” line was a quote from the WaPo.
Oklahoma! The reddest state in the Union. Texas has a few municipalities that’ll end up banning the sale of your guns. Your guns will be welcome in every county in Oklahoma;)
Wasn’t Sebelius your governor for two terms? You’re my neighbor so I know your state is conservative but the possibility that a Malthusian liberal like her could win again should frighten gun companies away. O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A!
I believe TX, like OK, has state pre-emption on gun laws where the municipalities cannot exceed state firearms laws. As an Oklahoman plus being involved in economic development for manufacturers, I am in favor of any move that brings that kind of jobs to OK. However, any company needing that kind of skilled workers better bring at least part of their own workforce because that is the toughest hire right now. Skilled machinists are being poached from one company to another and there are plenty retiring without an equivalent backfill of new skilled workers.
...and that’s why gun manufacturers should locate in Indiana. Local gun restrictions are prohibited and we’re right next door to Illinois so the poverty stricken vassal servants of that nanny state can peer across the border and catch an occassional glimpse of a free people.
I think it’s clear this is going to have to settled on the football field. It’ll be the first time in my adult life I’ll root for the Sooners.
Texas—Wyoming—Montana—South Dakota come to mind.
Tennessee has no income taxes.
Nebraska is considering dropping their income taxes.
Whtever the cost of the move, those are deductible expenses for the company no mtter where they go.
Having a talented labor pool will be a major consideration, altho I would expect the majority of 300 employees would welcome a move to a state without income taxes.
I have only been to the Texas Panhandle once, to watch Troy play West Texas State.
I did live in Western Kansas for 5 years and visited the Oklahoma Panhandle several times. Not a whole lot of difference.
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