By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
With the signature of Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper on anti-gun legislation that includes a ban on so-called “high capacity magazines,” Magpul Industries is pulling out of the Centennial State and taking its jobs and business elsewhere.
On its Facebook page, Magpul noted with no small amount of sarcasm, “With the signing of the HB 1224, we want to reassure Colorado residents, now officially in occupied territory, that the ‘Boulder Airlift’ will continue until we can no longer legally ship to CO residents at the approach of the July 1 deadline, so long as demand continues.”
The “occupied territory” reference brought back memories of the original version of Red Dawn, starring the late Patrick Swayze and a much younger Charlie Sheen, which was set in Colorado. Magpul is headquartered in Erie, CO and they manufacture magazines for semi-auto sporting rifles.
The Denver Post quoted Doug Smith, Magpul’s chief operating officer, who was blunt.
“Our moving efforts are underway,” he said. “It’s going to be a phased approach, and until the move is complete, we’re going to continue manufacturing magazines in Colorado. Within the next 30-days we will manufacture our first magazine outside the state of Colorado.”
A call to Magpul from TGM was not returned.
Hickenlooper, a Democrat, had promised to sign the legislation and Vice President Joe Biden had reportedly lobbied members of the Colorado Legislature to pass various anti-gun measures.
Reaction from anti-gunners was predictably supportive of Hickenlooper. State Rep. Rhonda Fields, a Democrat, quoted by CBS.
“I am happy the governor is signing common-sense legislation that reduces gun violence in our communities by keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, domestic violence offenders and the seriously mentally ill,” Fields said.
Where Colorado gun prohibitionists succeeded, they failed in other states. Washington gun control proponents saw their attempts to ban so-called “assault weapons” and large capacity magazines, and “universal background checks” fail.
Meanwhile, anti-gun California Sen. Dianne Feinstein will get an opportunity to push for her semi-auto and magazine ban, but only as proposed amendments to a larger Democrat gun control package to be debated by the Senate in April. The ban was removed from the Democrat anti-gun agenda by Majority Leader Harry Reid, who told reporters that he could not muster 40 votes, much less the 60 that would be required to pass the measure.
