Remington Arms stuck to its guns and followed through on its pledge to leave left-wing New York state.
Next month, Remington, the oldest gunmaker in the nation, will leave the town of Ilion in upstate New York for greener and more welcoming pastures in Georgia.
“Two hundred and eight years of history. Gone, gone,” Ilion Mayor John Stephens told The New York Times. “Ilion is Remington. Remington is Ilion.”
“It’s like the town is losing its soul. It’s almost like losing a family member. That’s the thing that people are struggling with the nostalgia, the history. It feels like we are losing the identity of the town,” Stephens added.
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Jim Conover, a retired Remington employee who began working at the plant in 1964, told The Associated Press, “When Remington leaves, it’s not going to be like a facility leaving, it’s going to be like part of your family has moved off.”
Remington’s move was announced more than two years ago.
As the Tampa Free Press reported in November 2021, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced that the company would invest $100 million to relocate from its anti-gun home in New York to LaGrange, Georgia.
As part of the move, Kemp said that Remington intended to shift its global headquarters to Georgia, build a state-of-the-art plant, and create a “world-class” research and development center. The plan brought Georgia 900 new jobs.
The relocation will be completed in March when Remington shutters the factory established in Ilion in 1816.
Roughly 300 residents of Ilion will lose their jobs when Remington closes its doors for the final time in New York.
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Critics blamed New York’s Democratic governors for Remington’s departure, according to Fox Business.
Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik blamed current Gov. Kathy Hochul’s “unconstitutional assault” on the Second Amendment for driving Remington out.
Meanwhile, GOP state Sen. Mark Walczyk attributed the company’s move to a 2021 signed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo that allows people to sue gunmakers if they “knowingly or recklessly create, maintain or contribute” to violence.
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