An A rated endorsed Democrat from Northeast Pennsylvania is taking up a different kind of jobs message than most members of his party.
State Rep. Gerald Mullery has asked three gun manufacturers to relocate to Northeastern Pennsylvania because lawmakers in states where they currently have plants are considering enacting costly regulations on their businesses. …
Mullery, a member of the House Game and Fisheries Committee, recently sent letters to the chief executive officers of Remington Arms Co., Colt’s Manufacturing Co. and Kimber Manufacturing Inc. detailing the benefits of a move to Northeastern Pennsylvania. Remington and Kimber have factories in New York, and Colt has a factory in Connecticut.
Somehow, I don’t see too many national stage Democrats lining up behind this jobs plan. In fact, neither one of his party colleagues running to represent the Rep. Mullery’s county (it’s in two districts) was even willing to answer questionnaires from gun owners.
If I was the person deciding to spend the millions it will cost to move a factory I would want to make sure that not only is the place I’m moving Gun Friendly, but shows that it will remain so for the long term.
I do not know PA well enough to know if that is the case.
It’s good for the foreseeable future. The problem with Pennsylvania is the overall business climate is horrible. Pennsylvania is a horrible place to do business, generally.
I was going to say something similar to Sebastian’s take on Pennsylvania. If it was up to me and I really had to “pull the trigger” on such a decision, I’d go somewhere that the business climate is friendlier. I think PA could be more pro-gun if there was a bigger industry tied to it, but I think for the many factors that a business needs to consider, I’d probably pass.
It takes a lot more than a “friendly business climate” for a business to relocate. I used to work for a company that wanted to move to Podunk, Utah for the “friendly business climate.” Unfortunately, when the owner polled the key employees about the move, 99% said they would have to quit. The reasons ranged from proximity to family and friends to the lack of access to doctors in Podunk. The company scrapped the idea because the employees were critical to the success of the company.
The issue isn’t just that there’s a friendlier business climate as a motivation. The issue is that they are in a position to consider having to leave in the first place. After they’ve made that decision, it’s a matter of choosing the best fit for them. A friendly business climate is certainly going to be a big factor in that.
NY is threatening them with legislation that will force them out of the state. Once they decide they need to pull the trigger on the move if NY passes the bad legislation, then that’s where this post and conversation come in.
Bingo. I understand that’s one of the reasons Kimber moved from Oregon to Yonkers, downstate NY, there was a firm there that make stuff akin to M1911s facing defense cutbacks.
As discussed elsewhere Pennsylvania is not business friendly and has regime risk you won’t find in many if not most places that are both business friendly and where people like to live. E.g. I’d recommend the Joplin, MO area (which I of course know very well) before any part of Pennsylvania. Or SW Missouri in general: want a bigger city, go 70 miles NE on I-44 to the Springfield; Fiocchi set up a plant in it’s metro area. And there are plenty more locations that are gun, people and business friendly. Many if not most of them are also warmer ^_^.
I’ve been saying this for years. Pennsylvania is a close so the move would be short, we have a population that is friendly to firearms and so long as we keep Philadelphia in check, we shouldn’t have any issues with nonsense like micro stamping and the like.
I also think if we passed our own Firearms Freedom Act we can get a Thompson Sub Machine gun plant opened up. I mean, I’ve always wanted a tommy gun but i’m not payin $20K for it.
I hope we see some bi-partisan effort on Mullery’s plan.
“so long as we keep Philadelphia in check”
That’s the problem with Pennsylvania and many other Northeastern and Midwestern states that haven’t already gone full commie. They may be many gun friendly now, but it wouldn’t take a strong shift in the political winds to turn around and start implementing things like gun registries and microstamping.
If I were looking to set up a firearms-related business, I’d want to go somewhere where my long-term prospects were good. Somewhere where a major cultural change would need to take place before my business was in jeopardy.
I fear that Pennsylvania is in danger of becoming like New York. Upstate New York is very politically moderate. Many of upstate counties are openly pro-gun. But New York City cancels all that out and then some. I worry that a slight shift of power in favor of Philadelphia could cause the same thing to happen in Pennsylvania.
There a 350,000+ sq. ft. building sitting idle about 1/2 mile from my house and which is about 2 miles from Interstate 80. Great location, fairly new building in great shape (only been idle about a year, was a book printing facility) and a just completed 52 acre industrial park literally along I-80. Were I to hit the Powerball I’d sell my house and move to Utah, Idaho, or Montana to pursue any firearms related ideas I have. I’m a lifelong PA resident with roots here that predate the Revolutionary War and I love the area I live in and the people here, I simply do not see the long range business prospects as being good here given the influence of Philadelphia (and to lesser extent many other larger cities) have and the outlook for firearms freedoms, while not currently a huge worry, is that only CONSTANT vigilance and pressure will keep us where we are.
I’d LOVE to invite them in and champion the area I live in but while it would likely be a great fit in the short term, I don’t have confidence in the longer term prospects of PA not becoming another People’s Republic like NY.
What’s that? 1 Democrat in the whole state that’s worth keeping in office? Sad……
I’ll count up the number of pro-gun Democrats tomorrow, but that’s not really accurate. The party differences are extremely regional.