Kittery Trading Post

Kittery Trading Post, a prominent outdoor retailer and gun shop in southern Maine, has announced plans to move its gun operations to New Hampshire in response to a new Maine law imposing a 72-hour waiting period on gun purchases. This decision comes as local gun rights groups prepare to challenge the legislation in court.

The new law, which is set to take effect this summer, will require buyers to wait three days before receiving firearms purchased through a Federally Firearms Licensee, with few exceptions. Critics argue this restriction unnecessarily burdens law-abiding citizens and could endanger those in urgent need of self-defense.

Kittery Trading Post, a landmark that has served sportsmen since 1938 and is known for attracting significant tourist traffic, cited the law’s “irreversible consequences” on its business, which generates over $11 million annually from new and used firearm sales. According to a statement from the store, about 60% of these sales are to out-of-state residents.

“If this law is implemented, we will be forced to move our entire firearms business to New Hampshire,” the retailer said. The move could result in the loss of more than 40,000 customers annually and cost Maine more than $400,000 in sales tax revenue, the company estimated. The potential multiplier impact on area businesses is “unknown but drastic.”

Joshua Raines, vice president of Gun Owners of Maine, expressed his disappointment, noting, “If one-third of their income is going to be drastically impacted by this law, then it makes financial business sense for them to move over the border.” He added that the relocation could be detrimental not just to the outlet but also to the broader community.

This development followed after what the NRA Institute for Legislative Action described as “a barrage of procedural games and inaction” by Governor Janet Mills, which led to the passage of the controversial LD 2238. Opponents, such as the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and Gun Owners of Maine, argue that the law places unnecessary restrictions on Mainers’ Second Amendment rights and plan to file a legal challenge.

The law, which was passed despite significant opposition, is seen by some as influenced more by national anti-gun interests than by considerations for Maine’s economic welfare or constitutional rights. Kittery Trading Post has pledged vigorous support for the impending lawsuit, emphasizing the substantial implications the law holds not only for their business but for the entire region.

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35 COMMENTS

  1. Move the “firearms business.”

    Weak sauce. Move the whole fucking thing. Let Maine use the empty buildings to house more hobos and invaders and increase the taxes to make up for the loss of KTP. It’s what Mills wants anyway.

    • If they lose the case I wouldn’t blame them for doing exactly that. Sucks all around it was always a fun welcome to Maine stop when we went to the state.

    • Agreed; if she signs, they can sue as they move to NH, and since this bill represents a taking under the Constitution with regards to lost revenue and moving costs, the damages should be set at $100 million. Not just because it’s a nice round number, but factoring a loss of 40% of their income over the course of the next 20 years, not counting court & attorney fees.

  2. Don’t worry. You will always have l.ega.l b.utt se.x and drugs. Civil rights are not a priority with the leadership you knowingly elected.

    • “You will always have l.ega.l b.utt se.x and drugs.”

      Chris, you are one of the few commenters here I make a point of reading when you have something to say.

      However –

      Your incessant harping on that very subject is beginning to annoy me the very same way a particular brain-dead dunce does with her endless, repetitious bullshit… 🙁

        • “…why don’t the sacks of sht on this forum ever try to debunk my posts?”

          It’s not that you’re wrong, Debbie. It’s that on the subject of gun control and racism you’re repetitious and therefore boring, and as prickly as cholla.

          • No, Alan, not quite.

            YES, Debbie Dimwit is dumb as a box o’ rocks, but she is also WRONG, objectively wrong. She is stuck in time 50 years ago. Yes, the roots of gun control are heavily freighted with slavery, Jim Crow, and racism. The MODERN push for gun control is all about “control”. Mini-Mike Bloomberg and Shannon Watts don’t give a crap WHAT color you are; they just don’t want YOU to have access to firearms (but their bodyguards carry them, amirite?). “CONTROL” is the game, these days, not race. Debbie is too stuck in her time warp to grasp that. Oh, and she’s dumb as a box o’ rocks, besides.

    • Is all butt sex illegal or just same sex butt sex?

      What about when you’re butt banging your wife/cousin/sister/mom in Kentucky?

  3. Maryland; five business day waiting period for handguns. I’m sure Annapolis is waiting with bated breath to put waiting periods on long guns.

  4. The lefties salivate over the dream of reducing everything down to just one, Mexican-style gunshop that would be open two days per year. Christmas Eve would be one of them, running of course on reduced holiday hours.
    All purchases would then be subject to a 50% excise tax and a 30 working-day waiting period. Ammunition would be subject to a 50 round purchase limit.
    ….. Aaaaaaah, Lib Nirvana

  5. Gun Control Controls You. You will obey its demands or jack booted thugs will shoot you, your family and your dog…What else would come from an agenda Rooted in Bigotry, Racism, Slavery, Genocide and other atrocities? There is more than enough evidence to Abolish Gun Control like its sidekick Slavery just like there is more than enough evidence to hold the democRat Party liable for Monetary Reparations…I can see the forum’s resident bigots and their pals contacting congress demanding justice now…Not.

    • LOL.
      They wouldn’t or couldn’t fight for their freedom in Africa.
      Became slaves.
      Whitey freed them.
      And Debbie W wants reparations.

  6. Commies see the economic damage from civilian disarmament by excessive regulation as a win-win.

  7. KTP was a great place to purchase Standard Capacity Magazines when driving up from The People’s Republic of Taxachusetts. It will be an even SHORTER trip to New Hampshire, at least for the time being. New Hampshire has been “ethnically cleansed” by invaders from Massachusetts since the 1990s.

  10. Two separate times Governors of NY told Sean Hannity they would be happy to see him leave. He took all his money and radio show to FL. I am sure they are pleased and Hannity is much happier now.

  11. Used to hunt Ruffed Grouse, ‘Paatridge’ as my local friends called them in Maine in the early 1970’s, and loved it. Nice people, friendly, beautiful scenery. As a Virginian I had trouble with the Yankee accents, sometimes getting like one word in five; but was OK cause they had the same problem with my accent.
    Not the same state anymore. Invaders from the infected states to the south ruined it I’d imagine.

    • Not all invaders. We have been busy trying to make a living and NOT PAYING ATTENTION, never has been easy in ME, while they turned our youth into a bunch of lazy, freeloading, beggar, commies. Been going on since the anti-American, draft dogging, back to the land, hippy movement. The wave has crested and the formally great state of Maine is about to drown.
      KTP, good for you, take Windom Weaponry, and S&W with you. Don’t bother with L.L.Bean they are a bunch of snowflake, urban, outdoor want-to-be’s.

  12. I hope the loss of this and more revenue(tax) hurts the progressive legislature deeply. This is what they want. RINO senators or “independent” senators are just democrats in disguise as well.

  20. “The law, which was passed despite significant opposition, is seen by some as influenced more by national anti-gun interests than by considerations for Maine’s economic welfare or constitutional rights”.

    Golly, really?

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