Posted on 07/02/2019 1:20:31 PM PDT by PROCON
Weatherby ribbon-cutting cermony
When Weatherby Inc. opened its doors to their new headquarters in Sheridan, Wyoming on June 13, 2019, it ushered in a lot more than customers, employees and the media. The company welcomed something they haven’t felt in years – freedom.
You see, when Weatherby packed up their people and gun-building business in Paso Robles, Calif., one thing they couldn’t bring with them was California’s support for the 2nd Amendment. It doesn’t exist. And, as Adam Weatherby discovered immediately, Wyoming doesn’t simply tolerate the 2nd Amendment to our Constitution, they support it openly and passionately. California’s distain for American’s constitutional right to keep and bear arms wasn’t the only reason Weatherby left. It was the biggest one though.
“It had a significant impact,” said Weatherby. “The 2nd Amendment is very important to us and our customers. California was a different place when my grandfather started the business in 1945. Unfortunately, there had been too many restrictive laws passed in recent years at the state level to continue doing business there, and the writing on the wall is that it was only a matter of time before it would have been nearly impossible for us to operate in California.”
Weatherby Inc. Flees California
So Weatherby left. Still, it wasn’t an overnight decision.
“It was several years in the making,” said Adam Weatherby, “but I first spoke with former Wyoming Governor Matt Mead the fall of 2016. Things really started to move fast from there and our first personnel moved in the summer of 2018. The move was complete in June of 2019 as we celebrated with a grand opening.”
Why did Weatherby choose Wyoming? According to Weatherby, it was a combination of their incredible people, great tax and business climate, access to premium western big game hunting, a commitment to defending the 2nd amendment and an unparalleled incentive package. How much help did Wyoming give Weatherby? Enough. According to the State of Wyoming’s Business Council, Wyoming worked with the Sheridan Economic and Education Development Authority (SEEDA) Joint Powers board to develop a $12.6 million grant package to help facilitate Weatherby’s relocation. It worked. Weatherby moved to Sheridan and brought more than 70 jobs and a projected $5 million in annual payroll over the first five years of operations in their new home.
Weatherby Finds Freedom in Wyoming
“The cost of living for our employees is better,” said Weatherby. “Our access to outdoor hunting has improved. Selling firearms has become easier. We have nearly doubled our space because of the incentive packages the state offered which will allow for significant expansion and growth. Our power bill is cheaper, as is nearly everything else that it takes to operate a manufacturing facility. I don’t have to do a background check when I buy ammunition. I can have more than 10 rounds in my pistol magazine. (And) I can own and shoot a semi-automatic rifle. To sum it all up, we feel free.”
As motivated as Weatherby was to relocate to a place where the business and its employees could prosper, the family-owned company also knew it had to say goodbye to friends and employees near and dear to their hearts. “We really enjoyed our hometown of Paso Robles and that area,” said Weatherby. “We had to leave behind over 50 people that were not able to come with us. Saying those goodbyes were perhaps the most difficult thing we had to do this past year.”
What advice does Weatherby have for firearms companies which are still in California or other states which aren’t supporters of the 2nd Amendment? “Every business needs to do what is best for themselves,” said Weatherby. “For us, it was relocating to Wyoming. It hasn’t been easy, and it hasn’t come without a cost. However, our brand will be better because of it. It already is!”
The future of Weatherby looks bright in Sheridan. The company is refreshed, empowered, and engaged as if they have a new lease on life. That’s what freedom does to people, it gives them life.
To learn more about Weatherby Inc., visit them at weatherby.com
I have lived in Idaho since 2002. We are over-run by escapees from California. Funny thing is, the demoncrat party in Idaho is getting smaller and the Republican Party is getting larger. We don’t seem to be getting any more liberal. These are the kind of Californians you want moving to your state!
Maybe a lot of the 50 who stayed were sort of like my wife and I (both in our 80's) who continue to remain in a Soviet state (MD) ONLY because all the children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren live here in southern MD...
Wyoming is the a best kept secret as a State. Lots of cheap land and good people.
“That’s what freedom does to people, it gives them life.”
It will take them awhile to adjust to the culture shock of moving to the United States.
I don't think it can unless they secede.
Thanks!
I am 64 years old and find that the natural thermal springs in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho do me a world of good. I’ve found two of the best places to soak are in Wyoming: Saratoga, between Rawlins and Laramie; and Thermopolis, almost in the center of the state, 130 highway miles west of Casper and 80 highway miles southwest of Cody (the two closest airports served by the Delta connection).
I’d relocate to Wyoming tomorrow but my wife likes it here in northern Virginia.
I did a car trip through Wyoming last year and visited both Sheridan and nearby Gillette. Sheridan is the smaller of the two (population 17,860) but is a really neat town with a thriving art scene; it is located on the I-90 100 miles or so south of Billings, Montana. The elevation is 3,743 feet (the elevations tend to be lower in northern Wyoming than they are in southern Wyoming).
Compared to most states, the legislature is quite sane and rational; the GOP controls the 60 seat House of Representatives, 50-10; and also controls the 30 seat Senate by 27-3.
For the right person, Wyoming could be a great place to live, work and raise a family.
The federal building in Casper is named for Dick Cheney; down the street is a cinema called the America Theatre (your basic liberal would have a meltdown).
The Cadillac of Cartridges.
The salaries of the employees will buy so much more in WY, and the spendable income will immediately jump due to no Leftrafornia taxes!
I lived in Denver Colorado 1979-1981, it was a wonderful place to live at that time. One of the banks ( I don’t remember which one) gave you a Weatherby rifle of you choice in caliber for depositing $5000.00 in their bank in a CD for three years.
MO, KS, OK, AR, LA, MS, KY: SECEDE!
> Why should we let liberals take over and destroy it \
Because you apparently can’t have everything. The perverts glom on to the most $ and best places. Leave them to rot in their sodomy.
What’s Wrong?
The streaming people coming across our border are voting and voting for the same crap they left from. Stupid people.
I lived in the Metro area my whole life. Actually have family that goes back to the 1800s when Denver was a ore processing and then a cow town. I did live in Colo Spgs for a few years (still in Colorado and a nice conservative city at the time). I grew up in the Washington Park area.
All of the influx of people from the east and west coasts has changed the politics dramatically. Homes in the Washington Park area are going for $1 million plus and the middle class is being forced out.
Downtown Denver has been gentrified with tens of thousands of liberals who are happy paying a fortune for a 500 square foot apartment in a high rise building. It is like a mini-New York city. That whole area was run down with homeless and empty building just 20 years ago. Now it is very expensive high-rise condos stacked like blocks. I wonder what the population is in Downtown Denver. It has to be significant.
We are concerned that the open and free use of pot and now mushrooms has been a draw for the less desirable element. So the city is now overrun with liberal drug users and, because of the population concentration, will dominate all politics statewide. I predict that the state of Colorado will become like Illinois and New York state with high taxes and massive debt and with a massive drugged out homeless population living on the streets — because that is what liberals do.
Truly sad to see our once great state become a sh!thole.
Pretty much *anywhere* would be better than California at this point.
“We need to fight the Democrats and not each other.”
Can we get a list of Republicans, send out a mass mailing, and start a grass-roots rebellion? Maybe if you were chairman of the CO GOP things would be different.
If I remember correctly, it was the Bank of Boulder that gave you a Weatherby. Sad to see a great state such as Colorado being taken over by the progressive locusts that destroy everything in their path.
Boulder? Lol. Now they’d arrest you and demand that you be throw in jail. No toaster for you!
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