The Montgomery (AL) Advertiser wants people to know that gun makers are moving, and one of the major criteria when selecting new sites is support of the Second Amendment. Remington is building a $110 million plant in Huntsville, one of 19 states in which the company has facilities. Their largest plant is in Ilion, NY, where the SAFE Act bans the ownership of the very AR-15 rifles that are made there. Freedom Group director of public affairs Teddy Novine said there are no plans to move production from Ilion, though future expansion is planned elsewhere. Beretta USA is also expanding in gun-friendly areas, announcing the construction of a $45 million plant in Gallatin, TN in January. In case you’re searching for one, according to the article, Beretta manufactures the elusive .9mm pistol for the US military. Other companies that have moved . . .
or announced moves include Ruger of Southport, CT building a plant in Mayodan, NC (their first major expansion in 25 years), Kahr Arms of Pearl River, NY relocating their headquarters to Pennsylvania, and PTR Industries relocating their entire operation from Bristol, CT to Aynor, SC. States that have recently passed more restrictive gun legislation account for over $6 billion (NY $2.1b, CT $1.9b, MA $1.6b, MD $511m) of the $38 billion attributed to the firearms industry in 2013.
Your Lockdown of the Day™ wasn’t really a lockdown, according to Philadelphia Archdiocese spokesman Kenneth Gavin. Philadelphia police called administrators at Saints John Newmann-Maria Goretti High School around 8:30 a.m. on Friday to let them know that someone brought a gun into the school. The administration’s reaction was to instruct all students and faculty members to remain in their classrooms while the building was swept by law enforcement. Apparently that’s not a lockdown. After the preliminary search turned up no weapons, school was dismissed at noon “as a precaution,” as getting everyone out of the building would allow a “thorough investigation of the building” to happen. No arrests were made Friday, and no guns were found in the expanded search. Spokesman Gavin said that new safety procedures would be put in place starting next week, and that students shouldn’t fear going to school. “We have every reason to believe that the school is safe at this time.”
An Idaho State Police trooper is in hot water after being discovered in possession of more than 17,000 rounds of ISP ammunition in December. Some 16,080 rounds were found in cardboard boxes stacked inside a pole barn on his property during a warranted search. After police obtained an additional warrant for the seizure of the ammunition, they returned to the barn to find that most of the ammunition had been moved, and they were only able to seize 85 rounds. The next day a private investigator turned in an additional pile of ammunition to the sheriff’s office, but that pile plus the 85 rounds seized the day before still left 13,980 rounds unaccounted for and missing. As if that’s not enough trouble to be in, Trooper Howard also faces charges of forgery and grand theft for misrepresenting the sale price of a motorcycle he purchased and thus paying less taxes than he was supposed to. Howard was placed on paid leave back in December at the discovery of the ammunition, and in April that leave was modified to unpaid status. Needless to say, Howard faces termination if convicted of the charges.
Bite the Bullet, LLC out of Vegas is launching a new ammunition that they claim is cleaner, faster, and more accurate than standard ammunition. The new bullets are 6/2 lead alloy coated in a polymer powder coating and available in a variety of colors. The company claims that the bullets create less smoke and less mess than standard ammo, while moving smoothly through the bore allowing a faster, more accurate shot. As you won’t be scraping lead off down your bore when you shoot, the company says you should be able to go longer between cleanings as well. A glow-in-the-dark version is planned.
CCI Ammunition has launched a new .22LR round called Suppressor. It’s a lead hollow-point bullet that’s designed to be able to cycle your semi-automatics while staying subsonic. If you’ve never spent much time with a suppressed .22, obviously the quietest way to shoot it is with subsonic rounds, but that comes at the cost of often having to manually cycle the action. Of course, that also allows for the easy collection of your brass so you don’t leave any evidence behind, so that’s not without its benefits. Still, for those of us not involved in wet work, the ability to shoot quietly with no more fuss than we shoot loudly is a good thing.
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