Posted on 06/24/2014 3:22:45 PM PDT by Zalmon
Firearms manufacturer PTR Industries is so pleased with its move to Aynor that it is producing a special gun to show its appreciation.
The company will produce 1,000 South Carolina commemorative firearms, each stamped with an outline of the state with a Palmetto tree and crescent moon inside it.
PTR vice president John McNamara said the company developed the gun as a way to give something back to South Carolina.
The company moved its headquarters and operation to Aynor in January with no hassles. McNamara said state and local officials helped in any way they could, such as with zoning.
“All the red tape involved was handled efficiently,” he said.
S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley will receive one of the special edition firearms at a ceremony at the plant on Monday. The special gun costs $1,200 and may be purchased at several area gun stores.
PTR CEO Josh Fiorini decided to move the company from Connecticut after a law was passed that would ban legal ownership in the state of firearms such as those PTR makes. The legislature took the action banning assault weapons following the shooting deaths of 20 elementary school children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the deadliest K-12 shooting in U.S. history.
“I think PTR is looking at this special edition as a way to sell more guns and to give back to the state of South Carolina,” said Brad Lofton, CEO of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp.
PTR’s commemorative gun, a PTR-91, is the company’s first nickle-tone firearm with a welded scope mount. As with all the company’s guns, it is stamped with “Aynor, S.C.” and, along the barrel, the words “We the people shall not be infringed.”
Lofton said he thinks it’s “cool” that all the company’s firearms are stamped with Aynor.
The special edition firearm isn’t the only thing the company has done to help the state and Horry County.
It was key in helping another Connecticut company decide that Horry County will be the place for its first expansion when that time comes.
The decision to expand will be based on developing customers for a new facility, said Steven Meyer, president of CED Services, which does consulting and machine work for the aerospace and firearms industries.
PTR is one of the customers of the $13 million-a-year company, Meyer said. He and Fiorini have been friends for years.
Meyer said he has also looked in Charleston and the Raleigh/Durham area of North Carolina, but likes Myrtle Beach the best.
Lofton said PTR also introduced area officials to other gun manufacturers at last year’s Shot Show in Las Vegas.
Without an insider to help them, he said, connections at the show could have been hit-and-miss.
McNamara said that, personally, he was surprised at how easy it has been getting settled in Horry County.
“I think it’s a lifestyle and culture we all embraced,” he said of himself and the 26 employees who transferred south when the company moved. Just one, a 19-year-old, has returned to Connecticut.
Don’t care for the Two Tone.
Darn.
I just drove thru Aynor Sunday.
I wonder if PTR’s factory outlet store was open? It’s the Myrtle Beach area...EVERYBODY has a factory outlet store in that region.
We will be going through Aynor on our way to Myrtle Beach in a few weeks. Putting this on our must see list.
PTR-91 is fun because you can use military surplus parts from HK91 in them. Easy-to-find $2 magazines, etc.
http://www.hkparts.net/shop/pc/HK-91-G3-Parts-c9.htm
http://www.robertrtg.com/store/pc/HK91-G3-PTR91-c2.htm
http://www.keepshooting.com/firearm-accessories/h-k-parts
A lot of states are now considering that if guns and ammunition are produced in that state, solely for use in that state, then they are outside of federal jurisdiction.
In turn, because a gun manufacturer may find it economically difficult to operate just for a single state, the state may offer incentives to help them set up and succeed.
The most important of these low or no cost incentives is to not impede their business with bureaucratic demands, in fact to legally make it easy for them to set up shop the way they want to.
Next is to provide incentives for law enforcement to buy guns and ammo from that manufacturer. Importantly, since they are a small business, they can “tailor make” guns to the exact specifications that they want.
Third is to requisition commemorative guns as awards for good service and performance. A limited edition of such guns, as in the article, are often highly valued.
Connecticut’s Loss is South Carolina’s gain.Congrats South Carolina and PTR.
Nice Weapon by the way.Its to bad I live in this crap hole known as Connecticut.Where we used to have a gun industry and a government that wasn’t lead by a boatload of Liberals.
PTR makes a fine rifle but I can’t abide that two tone.
This is my rifle. This is my gun. Semper Fi.
Some flat black spray paint will fix that; or you could paint it p[ink and yellow.
You don’t really think the feds will buy that argument, do you? The same government that sued (and won) against a farmer who was growing crops on his own land, for his own use, on the argument that even though he wasn’t selling anything across state lines, he was AFFECTING interstate commerce?
It’s one of the ideas of the 10th Amendment movement. Right now it would not win, but if enough states agree to it, and enough turnover in congress, it most definitely has a chance.
FDR built his New Deal around the Interstate Commerce Clause, and LBJ built his Great Society welfare state around the General Welfare Clause, both of which were nonsensical extrapolations. To throw out these ideas goes a great way to restoring our constitution.
It won’t be easy, but it never is.
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