Posted on 01/21/2006 3:25:46 AM PST by Pharmboy
Douglas Healey for The New York Times
Unless a rescue plan is worked out or a new buyer comes forward, the gun-manufacturing plant in New Haven, with about
200 employees, will close on March 31.
Come spring, the Winchester rifle, immortalized as the gun that won the West and rode into the sunset with John Wayne, will be made in Portugal and Japan.
The U.S. Repeating Arms Company, which has manufactured rifles and shotguns in New Haven since 1866, is set to shut its doors on March 31. About 200 people will lose their jobs, many having worked for decades on the plant's assembly line.
snip
Paul DeMennato, a company spokesman, did not provide production and sales numbers, but the New Haven mayor's office released a statement saying that only 80,000 guns had been produced at the plant last year. The factory is capable of producing 300,000 a year.
snip
"I still have my dad's guns. These products don't have a built-in obsolescence."
The Winchester repeating rifle became the gun of choice for Western settlers after it was introduced in 1866, Mr. DeMennato said. The lever-action breech mechanism allowed the user to fire a number of shots before having to reload.snip
"Instead of saying, 'Get me my gun,' he'd say, 'Get me my Winchester,' " Mr. DeMennato said.
A 10-foot-high bronze statute of Wayne, eyes narrowed in concentration and left hand clutching a Winchester, stands in the lobby of the New Haven plant. On the wall behind it are the mounted heads of a stag and wild boar and a turkey in its entirety.
snip
Connecticut has a history of firearm production with companies like Colt's Manufacturing in Hartford; Sturm, Ruger in Fairfield; and Marlin Firearms in North Haven.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
They are more into the 'modern' cowboy, as personified by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall.....
That would be Olin, which makes the Winchester brand of ammunition, and owns the trademark, which is only licensed to US Repeating Arms, when it was spun off from Olin.
Very, very nice of you to extend some great kindness......As you said, it must have meant a lot to that gentleman.
His gesture to you reminds me..of the old saw..."Ain't never yet seen a Hearst pulling a U-Haul trailer"
A friend of mine has a Marlin pump ( the model escapes me at the moment..) that's very similar to the 1897. Although his is a 16 gauge...They are unique shotgun's. I hope you enjoy yours....
FRegards,
Connecticut ping!
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
I don't know about that model, but my first rifle was a Marlin 18 shot 22. It cost $60 and came with a scope. I never learned how to use a scope, but I was dead on iron sights.
My brother and I would go plinking cans every weekend. When 100 22 shells cost $1, it was easy to go through a whole box and go home to clean it.
After 10 years, the firing pin wore out and it began to jam. Never figured out what started to make it jam, but it still made a decent squirrel gun.
Actually Olin is Headquartered in Clayton, MO. The Winchester Ammunition division is indeed headquartered in East Alton, IL. But that has no longer has anything to do with Winchester brand firearms, which have been built by US Repeating Arms since 1981. USRA is currently owned by Herstal, the parent company of FN and Browning.
Actually the three companies have a long history of cooperation. FN made John Browning designs in europe for many decades, Winchester made many other Browning designs in the US. The Winchester-Browning relationship goes back to the time of John Moses Browning himself.
Unions and frivilous liability law suits are killing many businesses. Outsourcing is just a smoke and mirrors argument. Although we outsource something like 600,000 jobs here in the US, we insource something on the order of 8,000,000 jobs here.
If you erode that opportunity enough, companies will fold or seek the next best idea (usually somewhere with a less oppressive tax system).
The best arguement yet for the Fair Tax. Scrap the IRS, eliminate all taxes and replace them with a National Consumption tax. It will create a tax haven unlike anywhere else in the world. Companies will be falling all over each other to come here to produce their goods and do business.
I hope everyone here will visit
www.SaveWinchester.com
This is a REAL attempt to save this factory.
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