News to Me: Connecticut Gun Maker Leaving State Over New Anti-Gun Laws, Possibly More Following
Posted 11 mins ago by
When the Colorado legislature began proposing one anti-gun law after another, several firearms related companies told them that they would take their businesses out of the state if the laws were passed. Ignoring the warnings and not caring about jobs or over a $1 million in sales a year, the legislature went ahead and passed the laws.
Consequently, MagPul and HiViz Shooting Systems have both announced plans to relocate their companies to another state that is more gun friendly. I advocated at that time that all of the firearm related companies in other states, especially Connecticut and New York follow suit and move to a different state.
Like Colorado, Connecticut has enacted a plethora of anti-gun laws in reaction to the December shootings in Newtown. Many of the laws passed here are in direct violation of the Second Amendment, but that didn’t stop them from being passed. When anti-gun politicians continue to act on emotions rather than logic and law, anything can get made into law, and that’s exactly what’s happening.
Connecticut is a very small state which means it has to rely on a smaller number of businesses as a source of jobs and revenue than other larger states. Yet, some of the largest gun manufacturers are located within the tiny boundaries of Connecticut. Companies such as Colt, Marlin, Mossberg, Ruger and United States Fire Arms, are all located there along with a number of smaller companies.
At least one firearms company in Connecticut is following the examples set in Colorado. On April 9, PTR Firearms posted on their website that they have made the decision to move the company to another, as yet unnamed state. So far, most of their 40 or so employees have said that they would relocate with the company. Their statement reads:
“This past week an historic and highly controversial bill was passed by the State of Connecticut which will have far reaching consequences to the state, its citizens, and businesses. The bill we refer to is Bill No. 1160, AN ACT CONCERNING GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION AND CHILDRENS SAFETY. This bill purports to reduce gun violence by banning hardware responsible for less than 3% of homicides in 2011; and claims to increase children’s safety by restricting the ability of those most responsible for it – their parents – to defend them.”
“As a firearms manufacturing firm, our industrial roots reach deep in the State of CT. Along with other companies in the trade, we were deeply apprehensive at the hurried process to develop new gun laws and fearful that it would generate unintended consequences for our industry. On Thursday April 4th 2013, upon reading the full text of Bill 1160, our worst fears were confirmed. What emerged was a bill fraught with ambiguous definitions, insufficient considerations for the trade, conflicting mandates, and disastrous consequences for the fundamental rights of the people of CT.”
“The magnitude of the constitutional and economic importance of this bill is such that the disregard for public input (in the final version), and the haphazard production of the legislation should be insulting to any citizen or business in CT. It should be a shock to us all that such landmark legislation could be written in one week, and seen by no one (including the rank-and-file legislators) prior to its emergency certification. Having been present in the deliberations in both legislative chambers, it was clear that a majority of our legislators had not even read the bill – and those that had read it had only a cursory understanding.”
“The process with which this legislation proceeded, along with the language that resulted gives us no confidence that this will be the last violation of our rights in our beloved home state, and we only hope that this does not set a precedent at a national level.”
“The rights of the citizens of CT have been trampled upon. The safety of its children is at best questionably improved from the day of the tragedy that triggered the events that lead us here. Finally, due to an improperly drafted bill, manufacturing of modern sporting rifles in the State of CT has been effectively outlawed. With a heavy heart but a clear mind, we have been forced to decide that our business can no longer survive in Connecticut – the former Constitution state.”
“Furthermore, we feel that our industry as a whole will continue to be threatened so long as it remains in a state where its elected leaders have no regard for the rights of those who produce and manufacture its wealth. We are making a call to all involved in our industry to leave this state, close your doors and show our politicians the true consequences of their hasty and uninformed actions. We encourage those in our industry to abandon this state as its leaders have abandoned the proud heritage that forged our freedom.”
“Although PTR has not decided upon a specific relocation site at this time, over the coming weeks the company will be actively considering offers from states that are friendly to the industry. We hope to have a site identified within the next six weeks, and hope to have our move completed by the end of this year. We plan to keep our business partners informed on the status of our move throughout this process in order to affect a smooth transition.”
“We have extended the invitation to join us in the move to all of our employees, as well as all of our vendors. We are pleased to say that we currently have commitments to move from a majority of our employees, which includes ALL of our management personnel, engineering staff and skilled gunsmiths.”
“It is our hope and sincere belief that this move will represent a step forward for the company; and that by bringing our expertise and core personnel to combine with the business friendly policies, and a motivated local labor force from a state that respects industry and the second amendment that we can expand our operations and not only maintain – but increase the quality and reputation of our products.”
Mark Malkowski, President of Stag Arms said that his company is also exploring the possibilities of moving to another more gun friendly state. He said that they have received a number of emails from customers saying they are fed up with Connecticut and urge his company to pack their bags and move. Malkowski admitted that he’s been talking to Texas officials about the possibility of relocating.
Jonathan Scalise, Owner of Ammunition Storage Components says that he has been contacted by other states trying to woo him and his company to move. Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Texas are all vying to be the new home for his company. Scalise said they are weighing everything very carefully along with determining the impact it would have on the 150 people they currently employ. He commented saying:
“I have a very serious commitment to my employees, which is more than they got from their state legislators.”
Now if only the bigger companies like Colt, Marlin, Mossberg, Ruger and United States Fire Arms would all follow PTR’s example and pack their bags, perhaps that will make enough of an economic and employment impact on the state that will hurt those politicians come next election time.
News to Me: The Economy’s Great… If You Work For The Government
Posted 5 hours ago by
The unemployment numbers don’t actually look all that bad this month. If you work for the government, that is.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts someone as a government worker if he’s not in the military, and if he works at any level of government – local, state or federal – or if he’s unemployed but his last job was with the government.
Their unemployment rate dropped in March to 3.6% from 3.8% in February, going from 828,000 unemployed in February to 786,000 in March. Their unemployment rate has steadily declined since July of 2012, when it was as high as 5.7%. Since then, governments have added 618,000 people to their payrolls.
The same can’t be said for the private sector. Even though 88,000 measly jobs were apparently created last month, and the unemployment rate dropped to 7.6%, what they don’t seem to care about are all the people who dropped out of the labor force.
In March, there were nearly 90 million people not in the labor force. That means that in the month of March, 663,000 people quit looking for work.
And many of those 663,000 were Obama’s voters. The media might only fixate on the falling unemployment rate among blacks and Latinos, but again, what they probably won’t care about is how many of those who elected and re-elected Obama have simply given up looking for a job:
“[T]housands of Latino and African American workers dropped out of the labor force in March, the weakest job creation month in some time.148,000 African Americans left the labor force in March, according to BLS, swelling the number of African Americans not in the labor force to 11.7 million. 282,000 Latinos left the labor force in March, swelling the number of Latinos not in the labor force to 12.9 million from 12.6 million in February.”
The BLS also reported that of those 663,000 who quit looking for work, 315,000 of them were women. Why doesn’t Obama want to help women, blacks and Latinos? Maybe he does, and this is just his way of following up on his promise to them to take care of them. Once they’re out of the work force, they’ll have to depend on government programs to survive. And once they get used to welfare, they’ll always know to vote socialist.
In reality, the current jobs report is abysmal. But the media’s job is to sell the idea to Americans that the economy is recovering, and that the only way to fully recover is to continue with Obama’s policies. This is what the White House “chief economist” said:
“While more work remains to be done, today’s employment report provides further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression. It is critical that we continue the policies that are helping to build an economy that creates jobs and works for the middle class as we dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the severe recession that began in December 2007.”
Obama’s policies have led to where we are now. Continuing to implement his ideas will only further destroy the economy.
Most overnight successes took a long time.
(via whatiscapitalism)
This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Opening a small business in America vs. Hong Kong
Steps to open a business in the U.S. according to the Small Business Administration:
- Write a business plan
- get business assistance
- choose a business location
- finance your business
- determine the legal structure of your business
- register a business name
- get a tax identification number
- register for state and local taxes
- obtain business licenses and permits
- understand employer responsibilities
Steps to open a business in Hong Kong according to doingbusiness.org:
- Choose a company name and obtain a certificate of incorporation
- Sign up Employee Compensation Insurance and Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) Schemes with a private company or a bank
- Make a corporate seal and company rubber stamp
The purpose of regulation is to control through rational anxiety rather than dictatorial terror. Prior dictatorships
would shoot people, arrest and imprison them arbitrarily – this controlled people’s bodies very
effectively, but destroyed their entrepreneurial energies and motivations.
It is far more effective to regulate and license and tax – and this is true for all industries – because potential
dissidents then face their own foggy walls of vague anxiety – in which they will not face arrest and imprisonment,
but rather lengthy legal complications, which they may eventually win, but which drain much of the joy
out of living while they go on, month after month, year after year.
This is true for public-sector unions as well – we don’t make it illegal for a manager to fire a unionized employee,
because that would expose the system for the economic joke that it is – we just make it really, really
lengthy and complicated and emotionally draining and confrontational and exhausting – that is the true perfection
of soft totalitarianism. People will surrender to anxiety and still vaguely feel free – if you terrorize
them directly, they tend to just collapse intellectually and emotionally.
The Handbook of Human Ownership: A Manual for New Tax Farmers by Stefan Molyneux (via vinaffleck)
Let’s make a comparison. That is an AR-15 with a bayonet. The other is a stick with a bayonet. They want to ban the lug that attaches it to the gun. Why? I can take the same knife and attach it to the stick with some wire and make a more effective melee weapon.
Background checks and gun regulations will do little good if criminals can print high-capacity magazines at home. 3D printing is a new technology that shows great promise, but also requires new guidelines. Law enforcement officials should have the power to stop high-capacity magazines from proliferating with a Google search.
Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) • In a statement regarding the planned introduction of legislation which bans using 3D printing to print high-capacity magazines — something which a liberty-minded tech group called Defense Distributed has been all over in recent weeks with their Wiki Weapon project. The group actually had a fairly blunt response to Israel’s legislation: “Good f@&!ing luck.” This may be a first — an attempt to regulate 3D printing by a governmental body — so this will be interesting to watch. (via shortformblog)
(via shortformblog)
The Best Way to Destroy Person Freedoms…
is to have the families of dead children behind you when you sign the law.
I bet they will get a pen that the President used.
How Cash for Clunkers Hurt Both the Poor and Small Business People
I am a big fan of used cars generally. I just can’t bring myself to buy a new one given the immediate depreciation which occurs once I wave goodbye to the salesman. It’s just too painful for me. I prefer to buy my cars used.
The secondary market is also important for those who can’t afford a new car. Given that 2013 autos average over $25,000, that’s true for a good number of American families. The total amount paid of course, depending on the interest rate, is in the end a whole lot more than $25K too. The used car market is a key (but often overlooked) part of the economy, and a vital resource for millions of people.
Cash for Clunkers decimated this market because it took many functioning (and paid for) older cars off the road, while at the same time it encouraged people to take on heaps of debt in the midst of the worst recession in 70 years.
Sadly this brilliant scheme didn’t work so well and many people who bought new cars could not actually afford them. To boot, the good used vehicles which remained in the market rose significantly in cost. Many Americans found themselves with a repo man in their driveway and suddenly priced out of a once affordable market.
I suppose if people wait it out enough repossessions will hit the street eventually that used car prices will again edge down. But it sure seems like a lot of pain to get nowhere, and way too much time on the bus.
—Shared by Elle.
No, the state is anything but the result of a contract! No one with even just an ounce of common sense would agree to such a contract. I have a lot of contracts in my files, but nowhere is there one like this. The state is the result of aggressive force and subjugation. It has evolved without contractual foundation, just like a gang of protection racketeers. And concerning the struggle of all against all: that is a myth. Of course the racketeer protects his victims on “his” territory from other racketeers, but only so he can conduct his own racket more successfully. Moreover, it is states that are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions of people and immeasurable destruction in the 20th century alone. Compared to that, the victims of private crimes are almost negligible.
Hans-Hermann Hoppe responding to the assertion: “the state is based on a social contract, which provides the individual with protection and space for personal fulfilment, which without the state he would not have—in a struggle of all against all.” (via laliberty)
Hans-Hermann Hoppe (Photo credit: David Farrer)
(via laliberty)
This is causing universities to rethink their value to students,” says Professor Koller, who is from Stanford University’s computer science department. The most prestigious universities are always going to have enough demand for places - but the emergence of high-quality online courses could be tougher for middle-ranking institutions. Why would you pay high fees to sit through a mediocre lecture, when you could go online and watch world experts at another university, even if it’s in another country? “The universities in the middle will really have to think about their proposition,” she says.
Why I have next to no chance of ever getting hired.
1. I spoke out publicly on being Aspergers. This now days is a no no. Even if you do it to help others understand Aspergers. A lot of HR departments will search the web and find my name next posts talking about being Aspergers.
This makes me hire risk because of the ADA. They will see me as a lawsuit waiting to happen. Even if I despise such lawsuits.
2. I spoke out on politics publicly. Again this is a no no. Considering were I stand on politics and who is currently in the Whitehouse. Then my degree is also in an industry that is incredibly leftest. If you are libertarian, never get a entertainment based degree like me. You will never get work.
Again HR will search my name and come up with political posts with my name attached.
3. I have spoke out on student loans and the waste of college degrees. Another unpopular topic that one should never speck of if one wants work.
4. The new trend of personality tests. Both law end jobs, like retail and high end jobs like what Epic Systems has to offer. Now require a personality test as a job requirement.
I have never passed one in my life. There for this tests are a barrier to me. A wall to my chances of employment. Personality is more important then skill now days. Personality also does not mean you can’t do the job ether. I can fake happy. It would be like a acting job. Pulse with some jobs, why do you have to be perky? Why is this a requirement?
In some stores were they have this personality tests. I have seen some of the most grumpy people in the world. Who can careless about their jobs. So if the personality tests are working. Why do they have the opposite in the types of people they hire?
5. Some employers will hire you based on your credit score and amount of debt. As an example. If you have a large amount of debt. You can’t get security clearance. Both in the private sector and the goverment.
With the amount of student debt I have racketed up. I have no why of getting these kinds of jobs.
6. I have no industry experience. Before the economy went into its nose dive. My industry of animation. The hire out from grads at my school was close to a 100%. After the economy fell on its face. The industry retroactively started to require three years of industry experience.
When you are fresh out of college how the hell are you expected to have 3 years of industry experience? I had a lot of employers who loved my work, but they were not willing to hire based on that sole fact I had no experience in the industry experience. “Sorry Joe we love your work but you have no experience!”
7. I am stuck loving with parents because of my lack of employment prospects. We I live. If you have a 4 year degree. You have no chance at work. It does not matter what degree it is. It could be in underwater basket weaving and you could not get hire.
Here is why. 1. You are considered a flight risk, they will think you will go for a better paid job the minute you find one. 2. Jealously on the part of the hiring mangers, “he has a degree and I don’t!” 3. The mangers fear you because of your degree. They think you are out for their job.
With all of this I have zero chance of ever getting hired by anyone, anywhere. There is no light at the end of my tunnel. It has caved in and is permanently blocked.
What is CISPA? (by LibertyNewsNetwork1)
What is CISPA?
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing & Protection Act is a proposed bill that will essentially give the government, private security agencies, and corporations the right to anonymously access your private information on your computer and let them do with it what they please. The bill was proposed in hopes to cut down on piracy, but CISPA poses much more problems for citizens than actually fixing them.
Is the Affordable Care Act Unconstitutional? (by LearnLiberty)
Does Congress possess the constitutional power to force its citizens to purchase health insurance? Prof. Elizabeth Price Foley says that’s the key question in the Supreme Court challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The Supreme Court must decide whether the “individual mandate” portion of the law falls under Congress’s power to “”regulate commerce,” as enumerated by Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution.
Prof. Foley argues that whether or not you personally support the health care legislation, you should be worried about the precedent that the individual mandate would set. If the power to regulate commerce is interpreted as including the power to force people to buy something, then that power doesn’t just apply to health care. It would give Congress the power to make individuals buy anything, which poses a significant threat to individual liberty.
Prof. Foley worked with the Institute of Justice to file an amicus brief on the case: http://www.ij.org/health-insurance-reform-a-the-supreme-court
