Posted on 08/24/2012 7:32:53 AM PDT by Second Amendment First
ILION, N.Y. — This is the town that Remington built.
Almost 200 years ago, a young man named Eliphalet Remington Jr. forged his first rifle barrel at his father’s ironworks here in the Mohawk Valley. These days, the Remington Arms factory in this village, midway between Albany and Syracuse, is one of the few large manufacturers still prospering in a part of upstate New York that was once filled with them.
But now residents of Ilion, a community whose history and economy are indelibly linked to one of America’s more celebrated gunmakers, are starting to worry about Remington’s future. The recent mass shootings at a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Colorado and at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin have galvanized advocates of tougher gun laws in Albany, and Remington has made it clear that such laws could prompt it to leave New York for a more sympathetic state.
While elsewhere the debate over gun control includes talk of balancing constitutional rights with public safety, here residents are most concerned with a little-discussed element of the gun industry: economics.
Diana Bower, who owns a small engineering business with her husband, a onetime engineer at the Remington plant, said politicians pressing for new gun laws — many of them from New York City — did not realize what was at stake upstate. For example, company officials have said one proposal under consideration would require costly plant retooling.
“If you don’t live here and work here,” Ms. Bower said, “you really don’t know what it means to say, ‘Pass this,’ or, ‘Pass that.’ ”
And Rusty Brown, a furnace technician in the powdered-metal products division at the plant and a former president of its union, spells it out bluntly: “In my eyes, Remington goes away, Ilion goes away.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Come on down to the Missouri Ozarks !
Low taxes, friendly people, turkey, deer, planty of fishing opportunities.
Did I mention low taxes ?
Empty-headed, hippy-dippy, feel-good, moronic liberal barking moonbat.
I thought Remington was headquartered in Lexington, KY for some reason? Is it just the Manufacturing that is in NY?
Somebody help here. I don’t have time to research it at the moment.
If Remington does move it’s manufacturing, don’t be surprised to see it go out of America. They have to weight the potential damage to the Remington Brand but could likely save a lot of money by outsourcing or moving the manufacturing out of the country.
It’s “just business” and our government doesn’t know the first thing about it.
Remington, which has its headquarters in North Carolina, employs more than a thousand people at its Ilion plant, a complex of four-story brick buildings, some still with creaky wood floors, that are connected by passageways. The plant looks like a relic of the Industrial Revolution; from the outside, at least, little has changed since close to a century ago, when Remington expanded to meet the demand for firearms during World War I.
We will take Remington here in Texas as well. However, associated unions will have to stay back there in NY. Sorry, die-union people not wanted. But hey, no worries, Obama will take care of you, lol :)
“Remington has made it clear that such laws could prompt it to leave New York for a more sympathetic state.”
Or they could move east to NH. Plenty of room here next to the Sig Sauer and Thompson Fire Arms factories. Lots of skilled labor here and no unions.
I believe Remington would be welcome in Mississippi, I know I would welcome them. I have several Remington firearms and they are all well made and do what they are supposed to do. My oldest is an 1858 revolver one of my relatives brought home from the war. I also have an 870, 1100, 700, and a 552. My next firearm may be the Remington 1911 clone.
Why aren't they ALREADY gone, given New York's proven animosity to guns and gun rights? How can a person or a company have any self respect and willing cooperate in the continued existence of those who hate and denigrate them and their product? Besides this New York case, the fact that New England and Illinois are centers of gun manufacturing is an outrage.
That's not as true as many people think it is, nor as true as it once was. With transportation costs rising with the price of petroleum, language barriers, QC at the other end of a 8,000 mile and 8 time zone pipe and so on, some manufacturers of high value, high quality items are bringing manufacturing back onshore.
Remington should already be gone from New York and should offer no support to the agencies of any gun control state.
Thanks Laz...needed a good laugh this morning, even tho it is Fried-day.
FMCDH(BITS)
I can’t understand why Smith and Wesson stays in Massachusetts or Springfield Armory stays in Illinois either.
Isn’t Springfield Armory headquartered in Illinois? Figure that one out.
SIG is in NH.
I always wondered why many gun makers are up north , hell I’ve always wondered why any business is up north having to deal with unions, taxes etc
“....or Springfield Armory stays in Illinois either.”
Les Baer, a mgfr of high quality 1911 pistols and AR rifles, moved his company out of Ill. into Iowa several years ago.
SIG is in NH.
I always wondered why many gun makers are up north , hell I’ve always wondered why any business is up north having to deal with unions, taxes etc
It is NYC that is the problem. Once you cross the Tappenzee Bridge going north out of NYC, the state is far more conservative and normal. It is gun-friendly, too, outside of the cities. Upstate NY is an example of what happens when socialist governments (that of NYC) run things. The economy of upstate NY is miserable and the industries are museums of pre-1960 America. The NYC financial industry is what enables continuance of this situation. The dominant mill, transportation, and manufacturing industrial engines of upstate NY are no longer.
Remington wouldn’t go overseas because there are too many issues getting the guns back into the US. But nobody has mentioned NY trade unions. There has already been gun maker traffic away fron closed shop states ( Winchester left Conn. for ex.) Ruger has always had an edge being in AZ. While the government attitude in NY is bad enough I have expected for quite some time that Remington’s brain trust will take any more stupid gov’t action as an excuse to pack the whole thing up. My friends in the gun business won’t put up with stupid gov’t stuff for long. It’s not guns but it’s close and similar-—Buck knives bailed out of CA a few years ago and moved to NIdaho. Colt hasn’t moved yet but has indeed farmed out most, if not all, actual manufacturing to other places. Just keep waiting for the hammers to drop and all it takes is a litle state sponsored stupidity but you are watching a major re-configuring of most US manufacturing. And file this for future reference: the USA now has more gun manufacturers than ever and nearly all of the new ones are in non-union states.
Both companies do most of the actual work out of state. S&W has always done much fabrication in Brazil (Bangor Punta) And commercial SA also uses Brazil and other places. It’s been awhile since I’ve been to either office but I expect all you’ll find at either place now is a chick answering the phone.
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