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

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.

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    3 Responses to “Suggestion: Offer Texas Enterprise Fund Money to Blue State Gun Manufacturers Who Relocate to Texas”

    1. Dwight Brown says:

      Another point worth considering: remember Montana’s Firearms Freedom Act?

      What if gun makers move here, start turning out modern sporting rifles and normal capacity magazines, and selling them only in the state of Texas? Market may be big enough, and they’re not moving in interstate commerce, so you could challenge federal jurisdiction.

      I’m not 1,000% convinced that would work, but it’d be an interesting experiment.

    2. Lawrence Person says:

      The problem is that, post-Heller, judicial sympathy for 10th Amendment arguments is even more attenuated than that for 2nd Amendment arguments.

      I was arguing more about various manufacturers escaping state level rather than national hassles.

    3. […] might remember that I’ve suggested something of the sort before at the state […]

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