Gun manufacturers are headed South, and have been for some time now.
In the past six months alone, three major firearms companies — Beretta, Remington and Ruger — announced plans to build new gun factories in the South to keep up with rising demand.
And company executives aren’t being shy about why.
Ugo Gussalli Beretta, President of Beretta U.S.A., recently wrote an op-ed in the Washington Times bluntly titled “Maryland disrespects us and gun owners, so we expand in Tennessee.”
“Maryland’s governor and legislature voted in favor of new regulations that unfairly attack products we make and that our customers want,” Beretta said. “These regulations also demean our law-abiding customers, who must now be fingerprinted like criminals before they can be allowed to purchase one of our products.”
Remington, America’s oldest gun manufacturer, has been operating in New York since its founding 1816. But mere months after NY decided to pass stricter gun-control measures, the company announced it was expanding in Alabama, rather than its home base.
Austrian gun manufacturer Steyr Arms recently opened a new showroom and distribution center in Bessemer, Ala., continuing the state’s momentum.
John Zent of American Rifleman had this to say about gun manufacturer’s southern migration:
The firearm giants are bolstering a decades-long migration pattern driven by factors such as labor costs, lower taxes and less restrictive regulation, in addition to ever-more-pressing political concerns. Remington moved its corporate headquarters to North Carolina in 1995, and the new Alabama plant will be the company’s third in the region. Other iconic brands, like FNH/Winchester and Ithaca Gun (South Carolina) and Mossberg (Texas) also made strategic decisions to relocate.
On top of that, a wave of startup manufacturers is now thriving across the South, companies like Barrett (Tennesse), Kel-Tec (Florida), Wilson Combat (Arkansas) and Daniel Defense (Georgia and South Carolina). Adding to the influx are foreign companies, like Para USA, which completely moved operations from Canada to North Carolina five years ago, as well as Steyr (Alabama) and Taurus (Florida), whose warehouse and distribution centers have been expanded to now include assembly operations. By our count, at least 30 gun factories are now operating in the region.
Here’s an illustration of just how many gun manufacturers have headed south in recent years:
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
