“Remington Arms will be staying in the Mohawk Valley for the foreseeable future,” wham1180.com reports. “Two days after sources say Remington Officials met with three State Senators and three Assembly, U.S. Congressman Richard Hanna announced that the Pentagon would be awarding Remington an $80 million contract. In the meeting, sources say, Remington told the State lawmakers that they were moving forward with a $20 million upgrade to their plant that employs 1,200 people. Hanna said that the contract calls for Remington to make more than 5,000 sniper rifles and millions of rounds over the next 10 years for the U.S. Special Operations Command.” Spock! Analysis! Well Captain . . .
During the Sandy Hook spree killing, Adam Lanza used a Bushmaster AR-15. Bushmaster is part of the Freedom Group, a farrago of gun and ammo-related companies assembled by Cerberus Capital Management. Which also includes Remington.
After Newtown, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System informed Cerberus that it was “reviewing” its $751.4m portfolio with the private investment firm— unless the fund dumped the Freedom Group. So Cerberus put the Freedom Group, including Remington, up for sale. No word yet on who or when but . . .
Cerberus is thinking short-term; it’s pump and dump time. (The original strategy that didn’t pan out.) Spending millions moving Remington out of New York is so not part of the plan. Sucking on the taxpayer tit is. In fact, one wonders what New York offered Remington in terms of incentives and tax abatements to keep the manufacturer in-state — despite the fact that the parent company makes evil assault rifles that can no longer be sold in New York.
Yes, there is that. Chances are firearms consumers, fed-up with the Empire State’s hugely unconstitutional SAFE Act, will now boycot Remington products, if they haven’t done so already. Not that it matters to Remington much. The clock is ticking for the great off-loading, they’ve got an $80m contract in the bank, their existing inventory has been completely depleted and Cerberus’s other investments are doing well. Life is good. But this will catch up with them eventually.