Taking a Stand

Colorado ammo magazine maker Magpul threatens to leave state over gun bill

Since the article employs typical media speak [ignorance of firearms], I will happily repost Rational Gun's take on the issue:

Magpul has made it crystal clear that Magpul will uproot and leave the state if Colorado bans standard capacity magazines and enacts legislation to serialize and track said magazines in the state.  As in Magpul understands that gun owners in other states won't buy from a manufacturer so hypocritical as to make high capacity mags in a state where said magazines are banned.  Also, one gets the impression that the leadership at Magpul absolutely agrees with these sentiments.  I wouldn't be surprised to see Remington pack up and leave after Governor Cuomo refused to meet with Remington factory employees before he saved the children of New York State from 10 round magazines by limiting magazines in New York to seven round magazines (those three rounds are deadly!). 
 
Seriously, it's time for the other manufacturers to sack up and follow Magpul's lead.  Les Baer fled Illinois (the most broke state in the country but IL's unions and politics have nothing to do with that, right?).  Colt has already built a facility in Florida.  Fears are mounting in Hartford, CT as some folks suddenly realize the real cost of unions and anti gun state governments.  Armalite is fielding offers from three other states to leave.  Now if DSA and Springfield leaves, maybe Illinois legislators will join Colorado politicians Daniel Kagan and Joe Salazar in being the true shining lights of genuine money grubbing hypocrisy in this uncertain age.

And Magpul's statement:

In addition to the national battle to protect our firearms rights, many states are currently engaged in their own fights. Here in CO, a state with a strong heritage of firearm and other personal freedoms, we are facing some extreme challenges to firearms rights. We have been engaged in dialogue with legislators here presenting our arguments to stop legislation from even being introduced, but our efforts did not deter those of extreme views.

After the NRAs visit last week, several anti-freedom bills were introduced by CO legislators, and a very aggressive timeline has been set forth in moving these bills forward.

The bills include:
HB 1229, Background checks for Gun Transfers--a measure to prohibit private sales between CO residents, and instead require a full FFL transfer, including a 4473.

HB 1228, Payment for Background Checks for Gun Transfers-- a measure that would require CO residents to pay for the back logged state-run CBI system (currently taking 3 times the federally mandated wait time for checks to occur) instead of using the free federal NICS checks.

And finally, HB 1224, Prohibiting Large Capacity Ammunition Magazines--a measure that bans the possession, sale, or transfer of magazines over 10 round capacity. The measures and stipulations in this bill would deprive CO residents of the value of their private property by prohibiting the sale or transfer of all magazines over 10 rounds. This bill would also prohibit manufacture of magazines greater than 10 rounds for commercial sale out of the state, and place restrictions on the manufacture of military and law enforcement magazines that would cripple production.

We'd like to ask all CO residents to please contact your state legislators and the members of the Judiciary Committee and urge them to kill these measures in committee, and to vote NO if they reach the floor.

We also ask you to show your support for the 2nd Amendment at the Capitol on Tuesday, Feb 12, for the magazine ban committee hearing and Wednesday,
Feb 13, for the hearing on the other measures.

Due to the highly restrictive language in HB 1224, if passed, and we remained here, this measure would require us to cease PMAG production on July 1, 2013.

In short, Magpul would be unable to remain in business as a CO company, and the over 200 jobs for direct employees and nearly 700 jobs at our subcontractors and suppliers would pick up and leave CO. Due to the structure of our operations, this would be entirely possible, hopefully without significant disruption to production.

The legislators drafting these measures do so in spite of the fact that nothing they are proposing will do anything to even marginally improve public safety in CO, and in fact, will leave law-abiding CO residents less able to defend themselves, strip away rights and property from residents who have done nothing wrong, and send nearly 1000 jobs and millions in tax revenue out of the state.

We like CO, we want to continue to operate in CO, but most of all, we want CO to remain FREE.

Please help us in this fight, and let your voices be heard!