The company recently moved its factory to Nashville, Tenn., because it says the law in Maryland threatened its business. The opening day was celebrated with shooting demonstrations and a warm welcome from state officials.
The Italian gun maker says it's being driven out of its longtime U.S. home on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. The political culture there has grown hostile to guns and to the people who make them, the company says.
The view couldn't be more different in the city of Gallatin.
"They do what the people who live here really appreciate and respect and enjoy," says Mayor Paige Brown. "And so it's been a real pride thing for us."
The state of Tennessee spent more than $10 million to woo Beretta. Gallatin has also thrown in a $2 million property tax break and 100 acres for free.
Gov. Bill Haslam says the plant has made him the envy of his Republican colleagues.
"I literally had the governors of Texas and Georgia and North Carolina and South Carolina and I'm sure a few others walk up and go, 'Dang, Haslam, that's one we really wanted,' " he says.
Makes sense. If your company is making a deadly product that the citizens want protection from, then you simply move to a place where profit takes precedence over human life every time.
After all isn't coal mining still one of the main drivers of Tennessee's economy?
And I guess that shooting in Chattanooga last year that left four Marines dead was not enough to convince the state to adopt stronger gun laws.
I wonder how many mass shootings it would take to do that?
Perhaps this will be a trend which will find more and more gun manufacturers moving to the more hospitable political climate down South, where of course folks unabashedly cling to their guns and religion and eschew such Northern ideals as public safety and corporate responsibility.
Source http://ift.tt/1rjpMBI
