“On the Holmes Front,” with Frank Holmes
The country megaband Alabama once sang about the day “When it all goes South.”
That day has come, at least when it comes to gun manufacturing.
Fed up of liberal lawmakers, gun-grabbing legislation, and “progressive” policies designed to shut them down while illegally armed rioters rampage freely, America’s firearms industry is packing up its headquarters and moving from the blue states in the Northeast to red states south of the Mason-Dixon line.
The most recent example is America’s oldest firearms manufacturer, Remington Firearms. The legendary brand was founded in 1816 in New York state, where it’s had enough. Cuomo craziness was bad enough, and it shows no signs of letting up under Letitia James, New York’s gun-grabbing attorney general and, she hopes, future governor. (More about her later.) So, Remington has just announced it will move its global headquarters from New York to the city of LaGrange, Georgia.
“We are very excited to come to Georgia, a state that not only welcomes business but enthusiastically supports and welcomes companies in the firearms industry,” said Remington CEO Ken D’Arcy. “Everyone involved in this process has shown how important business is to the state and how welcoming they are to all business, including the firearms industry.”
The state’s Republican governor said not only that he’s glad to have Remington’s business, but that he’s given them business. “I am a proud owner of some of Remington’s first-class product, and now, I am excited to welcome them to their new home in the Peach State,” said Gov. Brian Kemp. “I look forward to seeing the oldest firearms manufacturer in America thrive in Georgia’s pro-business environment.”
America’s oldest firearms company is going to be joined by one of the most successful and well-recognized: Smith & Wesson. Dirty Harry’s favorite handgun maker will move its headquarters, and 750 jobs, from Massachusetts to eastern Tennessee.
That should boost the Volunteer State, since Smith & Wesson doubled revenue last year and broke $1.1 billion for the first time in company history.
If Massachusetts doesn’t want a winning, job-providing industry, Tennessee says it will take it.
“We welcome Smith & Wesson to The Volunteer State and are proud this U.S.-based brand has chosen to relocate from Massachusetts,” said Republican Gov. Bill Lee. “Our pro-business reputation, skilled workforce and commitment to the Second Amendment make Tennessee an ideal location for firearms manufacturing.”
The entire firearms industry is looking for a new target to expand, and the South is shaping up to look like the bullseye.
In June, the firearms company Dark Storm announced it would take 50 jobs from New York to Titusville, Florida. A month earlier, Troy Industries decided to leave Massachusetts and head for Tennessee—and bring 75 jobs with it. “While Troy has enjoyed a very successful period of growth in Massachusetts, the changing climate for firearms manufacturers in the state determined the need for our relocation to Tennessee to ensure the continued success of the company,” said CEO Steve Troy.
Late last year, Kimber Manufacturing, known for its deadly accurate 1911 model, decided to move from New York state to Troy, Alabama.
It’s not exactly a new phenomenon. In 2013, the gun manufacturer PTR moved from Connecticut to South Carolina after the state passed a restrictive gun control law. In 2014, Beretta USA moved its headquarters—and 160 jobs—from deep-blue Maryland, where so many federal employees live, to the free state of Tennessee after the state passed another tight gun control bill. “Our preference would have been to stay and grow in Maryland for decades to come,” said Beretta USA’s legal counsel, Jeff Reh.
As a matter of fact, the NRA has been writing about the move for years. “The companies publicly stated that moves to the gun-friendly South at least partly hinged on rampant anti-gun legislation in northeastern states where they have been long-time, tax-paying fixtures in the business community,” the NRA wrote in its official magazine, American Rifleman, in 2014.
Now the National Rifle Association is moving, too. It’s been based in New York for decades, but the state’s left-wing attorney general, Letitia James — Remember her? — decided to take a few shots at the NRA.
She filed a case trying to permanently close and dissolve the largest Second Amendment rights organization in the U.S. So, the NRA is moving to the Republic of Texas.
First, it was individual businesses. Then it was whole industries.
At a faster and more intensifying speed, America is dividing into two countries: a far-Left, anti-gun, atheistic, crime-ridden Post-America in blue states, where “progressive” Democrats rule over a shrinking group of people too poor to move away; and a constitutional, pro-gun, pro-God, pro-rights America in red states that are swelling its numbers and taking in refugees fleeing the drugs, homelessness, and condescension of blue state elites.
Sometimes left-wingers talk about invading red states, “liberating” women in Texas, or starting a second civil war.
That’s crazy talk… especially now that we have all the guns.
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”