Tag Archives: Smith & Wesson

Policies Have Consequences

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Recently, The Epoch Times posted an article about the village of Ilion, New York. For two centuries, Ilion has been the home of a Remington Arms Co. manufacturing plant.

The article reports:

In the village of Ilion, New York, 80 miles west of the state capital in Albany, residents are mourning the departure of gunmaker Remington Arms Co. after two centuries of continuous operation.

Without fanfare, the company announced last month that the manufacturing plant would be closing its doors on March 4, 2024.

“I feel like a family member has died,” Ilion Mayor John Stephens told The Epoch Times. “My dad raised four kids on a paycheck from there for 37 years. He walked to work and carried his lunch every day.”

Mr. Stephens said no one expected the announcement a week after Thanksgiving that the plant was set to close.

On Nov. 30, at 3:26 p.m., the company notified village officials of the decision by email. The message noted that “all separations” with the village would be completed by March 18, 2024.

Likewise, the company notified its 270 employees that they would soon be out of a job.

The article notes:

Publicly, the company attributed the plant closure in part to a hostile political climate in Albany regarding firearms production.

“I am writing to inform you that RemArms LLC has decided to close its entire operation at 14 Hoefler Avenue, NY 13357,” Remington Arms said in a letter to employees. “The company expects that operations at the Ilion facility will conclude on or about March 4, 2024.”

The Georgia-based company said it would continue to make firearms at its facility in Huntsville, Alabama, which opened in 2014, a year after New York’s passage of the Safe Act, which created stricter gun laws.

The anti-gun political climate in Democrat-controlled Massachusetts prompted competitor Smith & Wesson to move from its longtime base in Springfield to Maryville, Tennessee. The company announced the opening of its new headquarters there in October.

The article notes that the town has been losing population in recent years:

Until recently, Remington Arms employed about 1,500 workers, whose wages helped support the local retail economy, said village public historian Mike Disotelle.

“At noontime, when the employees would go to lunch, there would be a flood of factory employees going to local businesses,” he said.

Mr. Disotelle said Remington Arms was one of the village’s largest employers and a centerpiece of the downtown economy. This remained true even as the village continued to lose residents over the course of several decades, he said.

In 1960, the village had 10,000 residents. Today, that number is down to about 7,700 and could drop below 6,500 by 2030 due to the slow economy, high taxes, and limited housing availability, Mr. Disotelle said.

The northeast is losing its luster because of high taxes, limited housing, and the high cost of living. There is an exodus from blue states to red states. We just need to remind people not to bring their blue politics into red states.

Common Sense And Protecting The Second Amendment

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A few weeks ago, at a House Oversight Committee hearing, the Democrats continued their assault The Second Amendment. On Monday, Breitbart posted an article about those hearings.

The article reports:

Smith & Wesson president and CEO Mark Smith released a statement Monday pushing back against House Democrats, noting that “a Smith & Wesson firearm has never broken into a home.”

Smith’s statement comes just weeks after Daniel Defense CEO Marty Daniel and Sturm, Ruger, and Co. CEO Christopher Killoy testified before a House Oversight Committee hearing as Democrats criticized firearm makers’ marketing tactics and profits.

Highlights of the hearing included Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) asking Ruger to agree not to sell certain types of ammunition, to which Ruger CEO Killoy responded, “We do not sell ammunition.”

At another point in the hearing, Committee chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) claimed gun manufacturers “sell the weapons of choice to mass murderers.”

But Breitbart News pointed out that gun manufacturers do not sell guns to individuals,  They sell guns to wholesalers and distributors, who, in turn, sell them to federally licensed dealers, who, in turn, sell them to citizens who pass a federal background check.

Mass murderers are not limited in their choice of weapons. Timothy McVeigh used fertilizer. Are we going to ban the purchase of fertilizer?

The article includes a statement by the CEO of Smith & Wesson, Mark Smith:

Smith & Wesson declined the invite to testify before the committee.

However, company CEO Smith released a statement Monday that “politicians and their lobbying partners in the media” have criticized Smith & Wesson for years.

Smith then alluded to Democrats’ anti-police policies, saying, “Some have had the audacity to suggest that after they have vilified, undermined and defunded law enforcement for years, supported prosecutors who refuse to hold criminals accountable for their actions, overseen the decay of our country’s mental health infrastructure, and generally promoted a culture of lawlessness, Smith & Wesson and other firearm manufacturers are somehow responsible for the crime wave that has predictably resulted from these destructive policies.”

The article concludes:

Smith then pointed out that guns do not commit crimes, rather, people do: “To be clear, a Smith & Wesson firearm has never broken into a home, a Smith & Wesson firearm has never assaulted a woman out for a late-night run in the city, a Smith & Wesson firearm has never carjacked an unsuspecting driver stopped at a traffic light.”

The problem isn’t the guns.

This Is Not Surprising

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Yesterday Just the News reported that Smith & Wesson has announced record gun sales for this fiscal year.

The article reports:

Storied U.S. gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson this week announced a record-setting fiscal year amid an ongoing gun-and-ammunition frenzy in the United States that has persisted since last year.

Company CEO Mark Smith said in a company earnings call on Thursday that the gun manufacturer in the past fiscal year “surpass[ed] $1 billion in sales for the first time in our 169-year history.”

Smith said the company also posted “fourth quarter revenue of nearly $323 million,” which he said was “the highest quarter ever on record and marks the fourth consecutive record-breaking quarter for the company.”

He said the record year allowed the company to “completely pay off our $160 million debt, return over $8 million to shareholders through dividends and reduce our outstanding shares by over 14%.”

So what are the record gun sales about? It’s political and societal. As America watched lawlessness in our major cities escalate during last summer, many people felt the need to be able to protect themselves. As some people began to push for decreasing the police presence and activities in major cities, many people felt the need to be able to protect themselves. After President Biden was elected, many Democrats indicated that they were planning to limit the gun rights of Americans. Many people decided that now might be a really good time to buy a gun.

There is nothing wrong with having an armed citizenry. It actually is a deterrent to criminal activity when criminals know that their victims might be armed. Also, the idea of taking guns from law-abiding citizens does not make sense–unless you begin by taking guns away from criminals, you are going to create more crime–not less crime. It’s time for individual states to stand up to any possibility of limiting the Second Amendment. Many states already have. It needs to be all states.