Posts Tagged ‘Kimber .45’

Suggestion: Offer Texas Enterprise Fund Money to Blue State Gun Manufacturers Who Relocate to Texas

Thursday, December 20th, 2012

I’m not a fan of the Texas Enterprise Fund, because I don’t think government should be picking economic winners and losers; let them succeed or fail on their own merits rather than getting a boost from the Aristocracy of Pull. Some liberal critics have accused the Enterprise Fund of being Rick Perry’s slush fund for donors, but in truth all federal business subsidies are slush funds, and I think the Texas Enterprise Fund is markedly less corrupt than the Obama Administration’s green energy pork for contributors, or its $25 billion Government Motors bailout gift to the United Auto Workers.

Given that the Texas Enterprise Fund does exit, I can think of at least one good use for it: Helping gun manufacturers relocate from Blue States to Texas.

After all, it’s obvious that Blue State sentiment is running (at least right now) against legal gun ownership by law-abiding Americans, and that pressure (legal and otherwise) will be brought to bear on them to stop manufacturing certain types of perfectly legal weapons, or to cease business entirely.

So why not invite them to relocate to Texas? We have a skilled and highly educated non-union workforce, a broad and deep manufacturing base, a thriving economy, a culture that appreciates firearms ownership and their place in American history, stautory protection against frivolous lawsuits against firearms manufacturers, and no state income tax. While it’s a pain in the ass to move a manufacturing facility, doing so now could both increase a firearms manufacturer’s profit and prevent political pressure and legal harassment further down the line.

Companies that might be targeted include:

  • Colt Firearms of Connecticut
  • Kimber Manufacturing of New York
  • Smith & Wesson of Massachusetts
  • Springfield Armory in Illinois
  • Among many, many others.

    Texas could gain millions of dollars worth of economic boost at the expense of state that don’t appreciate firearms manufacturers anyway.

    Worth considering.

    A Centennial Worth Celebrating

    Saturday, January 1st, 2011

    This year is the hundredth anniversary of John Moses Browning’s Colt M1911 automatic pistol, the basis of pretty much every automatic handgun. The design is so successful that, to the untrained eye, a .45 automatic manufactured today will look very much the original 1911. Here, for example is my own Kimber .45, purchased in the mid-1990s:

    Compare this to the original M1911, and the even closer (and only slightly revised) M1911A from 1926:

    The M1911 deign has really stood the test of time. You’d be hard-pressed to find a device of similar complexity still in common use today that hasn’t undergone radical modification. Hats off to the far-sighted shade of John Moses Browning.