If you’re familiar with your Second Amendment rights or popular firearms, you likely know that Remington is the nation’s oldest gun manufacturer. But after 208 years of calling New York home, the Company has decided to find greener pastures.
The Company set up shop in Ilion, New York, along the Mohawk River west of Albany in 1816. But in 2023, union leaders learned that it had only months before the plant would close its doors there.
Naturally, the mayor of Ilion, John P. Stephens, as well as long-time Remington worker Jim Conover, is saddened to hear the news.
As Conover said, it won’t be just like a “facility leaving; it’s going to be like part of your family has moved off.”
To be sure, a company that’s been anchored in one place for so long undoubtedly has numerous community ties that will be missed.
But as company leadership explained, they’ve been left with little choice.
As you likely know, gun regulations have been strict in the state of New York for some time now. But thanks to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, the Company saw experienced a rather crippling lawsuit and bankruptcy. And since then, firearm regulations in the state have only increased.
In the last decade, these, along with company losses, have caused about 1,000 workers to leave.
And so, in December, RemArms sent union officials a letter stating that they would be moving to Georgia in 2024.
“The Company expects that operations at the Ilion Facility will conclude on or about March 4, 2024. The Company did not arrive at this decision lightly.”
The main reason for the move, there’s “an environment in Georgia that supports and welcomes the firearms industry.” And the same cannot be said of New York.
As NY Representative Elise Stefanik translated, “It is because of New York Democrats’ unconstitutional gun grab policies that the oldest gun manufacturer in the country has been run out of the state.”
