Earlier this week, the Colorado House passed a bill banning ammunition magazines holding more than 15 rounds. The bill is on its way to the Democrat-controlled Senate, which will most likely pass it next week. Given Governor Hickenlooper’s anti-gun activities, it’s a good bet that he’ll sign it when it reaches his desk.
Well-known magazine manufacturer Magpul Industries is based in Colorado, and most of its products would be banned under the bill. Prior to the House vote, the company warned Democrats that it would likely pull up stakes and leave the state if the ban passed, taking several hundred jobs with it. In an attempt to avoid that outcome, the House Democrats cynically inserted a provision into the bill exempting manufacturers from its provisions, provided their products were only sold out of state.
Hopefully, Magpul will call their bluff and leave Colorado. According to the bill, its products pose a “serious danger to public safety.” If that’s the case, why allow them to continue manufacturing them for sale elsewhere?
But where would they go? One possibility is Texas:
Texas governor and former GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry is rolling out a Texas-sized red carpet for Magpul Industries, the Colorado gun-parts manufacturer that has vowed to find greener pastures if a bill banning high capacity ammunition magazines, like those that Magpul makes, becomes law.
In a letter to Magpul founder and CEO Richard Fitzpatrick, Perry touts Texas’s business climate, citing such things as “low taxes, a fair legal system, reasonable regulations, a well-trained and skilled workforce and unmatched transportation and communications infrastructures.”
“There is no other state that fits the definition of business-friendly like Texas,” Perry wrote.
Perry mentioned gun rights only briefly, in a business context.“While I support the efforts of law enforcement to identify, apprehend, prosecute and punish criminals who use firearms in the commission of their crimes,” he wrote, “I do not believe that imposing additional requirements or restrictions on businesses is the correct approach.”
—The final deal-sweetener Perry mentioned was a lack of union influence in Texas.
“As you consider the best path for the future of your company, you might want to consider the savings in real dollars that would accrue to your bottom line were you to take advantage of the lower labor costs in Texas,” Perry wrote.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Magpul said it’s still weighing its options and focusing on defeating legislation in Colorado.
“It appears that someone has posted or sent out some sort of notice that we are moving to a specific location,” the company wrote. “We can assure you that no decision has been made about location, and that we are still fighting this battle. We are, however, assembling our requirements and looking at various areas that would be suitable for our new home, should it come to that. We appreciate all the offers, and we will begin talking to various entities about those shortly.”
I just saw that article. I’d love to see Magpul come to Texas.
Bring ‘em over to Kansas!
Arizona would welcome them as well.
Tr
Truth be told though, I’d prefer to see them stay in Colorado, because that would mean we’ve turned the tide against the commies in the Rocky Mountain State.
@ The Osprey:
Unfortunately, the tide is still going out.
Prior to the last election, Republicans had a one seat majority in the state House and could have blocked some of this crap.
Now we’ve got nothing.
@ lobo91:
You’ve been Californicated.
The Osprey wrote:
Yup
But hey, we’ve got the first openly gay Jewish Congressman now, so it’s all good.
//Not in my district
Lot’s of crap coming out of Colorado now.
Colorado morons want to leave women defenseless: “Vomiting or urinating” better than carrying a gun.
Colorado Democrat Rep. Joe Salazar wants all young women disarmed and given rape whistles. Because women are the inherently unstable, given to hissy-fits and the vapors, especially around that certain time of the month, and they “just don’t know who they’re gonna be shooting at“.
@ Fritz Katz:
Take a whacky to begin with California lib. Put him in thin mountain air. Give him legal weed.
Et voila, the Coloradical.
Gov. Perry should be careful about luring too many blue state liberals who have crapped in their nest into Texas, lest it becomes Californicated like Colorado. They don’t leave their politics behind when they move and succeed in crapping their nest where ever they go.
@ 96cid:
Actually the companies will relocate, I am not sure the workers will.
96cid wrote:
That is exactly how California got Californicated. Liberals from the other 47 continuous States moved to California when our economy was booming (I like to call them economic locust) and brought their Marxist Liberal political ideologies with them, once the intrastate immigration levels exceeded 52 percent us Californians became a minority in our own State and we lost the battle over our economy to corrupt Marxist/socialist politicians.