Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees. The New York Daily News is all aflutter over word that the fiscally challenged state of New York has given grants totaling about $6 million to Remington and Kimber. And their outrage seems to be based on the fact that both gunmakers are ardent opponents of Andy Cuomo’s ludicrous microstamping proposal (their distaste for the merchants of death goes without saying). The thinking, apparently, is that any company that opposes “meaningful gun control” should be ineligible to receive public funds. Just like the proverbial stopped clock, the News is right to be up in arms. But it’s for all the wrong reasons . . .

Both companies, as you’d expect, have indeed very publicly expressed their dislike for microstamping scheme. Remington went so far as to threaten to move if it becomes Empire State law. And while the proposal is no longer on the table, ideas like this can be harder to kill than Michael Myers. Just when you think they’re dead and buried they rise again, trying to shiv you when you least expect it.

Here’s author Kenneth Lovett’s lede:

Two gun-makers who have opposed a police-favored bill for bullet microstamping received more than $6 million in state economic development funds since 2009, the Daily News has learned.

Most of the grant money, $5.6 million, went to the Remington Arms Company, which threatened recently to leave New York if the state passes a microstamping measure.

The initiative, backed by Gov. Cuomo during his gubernatorial campaign, would require bullet casings to carry unique markings — something the law enforcement community believes would help detectives solve gun crimes.

Got that? The nerve of them. The cops want microstamping – it’s gotta be good! But Remmy and Kimber have one hand out accepting the cash while the other one flips the bird at the governor who only wants to save lives. Cue the usual suspects’ well-rehearsed outrage.

“Giving millions of dollars of taxpayer money to the gun industry in sweetheart deals while thousands of innocent New Yorkers die each year by guns cannot be justified,” said New Yorkers Against Gun Violence Executive Director Jackie Hilly.

Naturally, the state bureaucrat who’s in charge of doling out the samolians justifies the payments because it’s for the children in the name of protecting jobs. If you believe the article, Remington brought 78 jobs to Ilion (and “preserved” another 892 existing positions) as a result of plants closed in Massachusetts and Connecticut after Freedom Group acquisitions. And Kimber used their $700,000 handout to add manufacturing capacity.

But here’s the real question – the one that apparently doesn’t occur to Lovett: in the middle of the biggest gun-boom in history, at a time when these companies are working like one-armed paper hangers to meet demand they used to only dream of, why the hell should the taxpayers of New York (ooh, don’t forget about $4 million in federal grants, too!) be subsidizing two highly profitable private companies? Isn’t that the scandal the News should be up in arms about?

Maybe – and this is a big maybe – an argument could be made for the handouts if these companies were in distress and the state was in danger of losing hundreds of good-paying manufacturing jobs. Even then, there are plenty of people who won’t buy a Government Motors car. How many gun buyers would belly up to the counter and plunk down their money for a Government Arms 1911? Would you?

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

22 COMMENTS

  1. You typed “Michael Myers,” yet I inexplicably read “Michael Moore.” Huh. Go figure.

  2. I agree states should do fewer handouts to successful companies. Unfortunately we’ve off-shored so many manufacturing jobs under prior administrations that states are cutting each other’s (and their own) throats trying to hang on to the jobs that remain and companies are taking advantage of the situation. Those 892 existing jobs could easily have gone South with many other Remington jobs from shuttered factories from acquisitionsand I’m sure the Southern state was in there offering incentives. I’m sureRemington did a lot of horse trading with the State of NY about those jobs. It is a lousy situation but states are over a barrel until we create (or return) more manufacturing jobs in the US. Clinton didn’t do it, Bush didn’t do it, and Obama hasn’t done it. Would Romney? His record doesn’t seem to hold much promise in this arena, either.

    • We won’t return manufacturing jobs to the US until people realize that the overwhelming majority of manufacturing jobs are barely above minimum wage jobs that a trained monkey could do. Companies didn’t ship those jobs overseas for fun, they did it because the (mostly union) manufacturing workforce priced themselves out of the market.

      • Too true. Still wages are rising overseas, the US dollar has sunk quite a bit and fuel costs are going up, increasing the costs of shipping goods across the planet. All that has added up to some repatriation of manufacturing to the US, but, and it’s a Big Butt, most of that work is being done by a very few people as manufacturers increase automation and efficiency even further.

        • the US dollar has sunk quite a bit

          Actually, the US dollar has gotten a lot stronger against the Euro since the economic problems hit the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain — especially Greece). Which is part of the problem. The other part is that the value of the Chinese yuan has been kept artificially low. As a result, American goods are too pricy abroad.

      • I don’t consider myself a union supporter (since I worked in management almost wall of my career in both unionized and non-unionized companies) but I believe that the rise of the “I can manage anything” MBA who have no understanding of manufacturing, combined with useless Boards of Directors who can’t strategize themselves out of a paper bag should bear the primary responsibility for the decline of American manufacturing. All helped, of course, by politicians/legislators with no experience in actually producing anything, and the unions were just as shortsighted. Fortunately we still have some areas of manufacturing strength (firearms being one) that can compete with the best in the world and still pay their employees a middle class wage. We have to have and support more such industries.

    • Grand scheme of things, 6 million is chump change. I would imagine the direct and payroll taxes that are paid by Remington and Kimber to employees and suppliers are substantial. Hey, if NY does not want the gun companies, I am sure other areas would welcome them.

      • My sister works for the NYC dept of Education. Each autistic (I believe) child costs them $120K yearly to provide a custom education too and they won’t ever be able to work or live independently.

        Part of the reason, the Freedom Group moved to upstate NY was a tax deal. In exchange NY gets jobs, economic growth, and still gets business taxes and can tax the workers.

  5. teflon blog
    Grand scheme of things, 6 million is chump change. I would imagine the direct and payroll taxes that are paid by Remington and Kimber to employees and suppliers are substantial. Hey, if NY does not want the gun companies, I am sure other areas would welcome them.

  8. “The thinking, apparently, is that any company that opposes “meaningful gun control” should be ineligible to receive public funds.”

    There you have dystopian Progressive thinking, and don’t think they’ll stop there. Soon, it’ll be that if you don’t think a certain way or abide by certain politically correct demands, you’ll be denied emergency services, voting, schooling, etc. Assimilate or be a slave, that’s the Progressive mantra.

  9. “The cops want microstamping”

    Not completely true — police are exempt.

    So “the cops want microstamping” — BUT NOT FOR THEMSELVES.

  10. I love Kimber and Remington, but I can’t believe they’re both stupid enough to stay in the PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF NY . They should move to a good ole gun loving state and take all the jobs with them.

Comments are closed.