Posted on 02/24/2013 7:11:59 AM PST by Second Amendment First
On the production floor of Beretta USA sits a hulking new barrel-making machine ready to churn out the next object of obsession in America’s love-hate relationship with guns: a civilian version of a machine gun designed for special operations forces and popularized in the video game Call of Duty.
Beretta, the nearly 500-year-old family-owned company that made one of James Bond’s firearms, has already invested more than $1 million in the machine and has planned to expand its plant further in Prince George’s County to ramp up production.
But under an assault-weapons ban that advanced late last week in the Maryland General Assembly, experts say the gun would be illegal in the state where it is produced.
Now Beretta is weighing whether the rifle line, and perhaps the company itself, should stay in a place increasingly hostile toward its products. Its iconic 9mm pistol — carried by every U.S. soldier and scores of police departments — would also be banned with its high capacity, 13-bullet magazine.
“Why expand in a place where the people who built the gun couldn’t buy it?” said Jeffrey Reh, general counsel for Beretta.
Concern that the company will leave, and take its 300 jobs with it, is palpable among state lawmakers who worry it could be collateral damage from Gov. Martin O’Malley’s proposed gun-control bill.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The bottom line is that blue states are just no longer conducive to business. There are many red states where not only could Beretta have an almost ideal manufacturing set up, with lots of acreage, energy and water for their plant, in a major transportation zone, but they could even have a luxurious “company town” for their executives and employees.
And very little local or state government interference, except in helpful ways they have solicited.
It would be their own version of Walt Disney World.
MD has always been weak on the right to bear arms. In fact, it doesn't even appear in their constitution. This is reason enough for freedom loving citizens to vacate the state.
Beretta is welcome to come to PA. The right to bear arms in PA Shall not be questioned.
Yep.
I live 14 mile from Rick’s parents. His family arrived here 3 years before mine did in 1889.
No place on earth appreciates fine weapons more than the people of Texas. And we appreciate and respect business owners.
I doubt they would have those sort of problems in Arizona or a lot of other places.
Andare a ovest vecchio armiere
My family came to the Republic of Texas in 1839.
There is more reasons than just the scholarship received that has my CA kid going to OU! Go Sooners!
Latin for “look about (around) you”.
The whole phrase roughly: “If you seek a more pleasant peninsula, look about you...just dont look at Detroit.”
They can build it down the road from me. Right next to the Hornady plant. Guns and ammo in one spot. Ummm. Nice.
One of my ancestors was born in Texas during the Republic, but others came during Reconstruction.
They moved to this county in 1889. The title on one of our farms has 3 names on record, all in the family. From father to daughter to nephew.
Outsiders often mistake love of Texas as pride or arrogance. It is neither. It is based in love of freedom and open spaces. There is no recovering from that.
“Texas is not where you were born but a State of Heart, Mind and Attitude” TF
Time to get out of Maryland.
Grady County bump! Plenty of good bbq, as well.
Yeah!
Come to Georgia! We know how to respect Baretta’s 500 Year family heritage of firearms freedom!
Come to Georgia! We know how to respect Baretta’s 500 Year family heritage of firearms freedom!
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