As more states issue shelter-in-place orders, closing businesses and confining people to their homes unless shopping for food or medicine, the nation’s firearms and ammunition manufacturers have begun to be affected. Case in point: yesterday’s shutdown of the Remington factory in Ilion, New York.
The industry produces firearms, ammunition, optics, and other equipment for military, law enforcement and the retail market. Shuttering significant parts of its manufacturing capacity would be crippling.
And then there’s the need for Americans to have the means to defend themselves, their homes, property and businesses while law enforcement officers are stretched thin and otherwise occupied.
In response, the National Shooting Sports Foundation has asked the Department of Homeland Security to designate the country’s firearm and ammunition manufacturers, distributors and retailers as a National Critical Infrastructure Industry.
Here’s the letter the NSSF’s Larry Keane sent to DHS yesterday:
