HiViz has looked at the new anti-gun atmosphere in The Centennial State and decided that they don’t want their tax dollars to support a state that infringes on its citzens’ RKBA. As such, they’ve just announced that they’ll be joining Magpul in finding a more hospitable place to do business. Press release after the jump . . .

April 1, 2013, Fort Collins, CO–HiViz Shooting Systems (a division of North Pass Ltd.), announces plans to relocate operations out of the state of Colorado due to recent changes in Colorado state gun control legislation. HiViz President and CEO, Phillip Howe, states that talks are currently under way with officials of a neighboring stater egarding the move.

Mr. Howe comments, “I make this announcement with mixed emotions. Colorado is a beautiful state with great people, but we cannot in clear conscience support with our taxes a state that has proven through recent legislation a willingness to infringe upon the constitutional rights of our customer base.” Mr. Howe notes that prior to the changes in law in Colorado, he made several attempts to persuade state officials via emails and telephone calls to proceed slowly with gun control legislation that would impact individual shooters and the shooting industry as a whole.

Although the relocation will be expensive and time consuming, he adds, “It is in the best interest of our company and our customers.” Starting with corporate headquarters, the operations will be moved over an extended period of time ensuring no interruption of services to its customer base, and HiViz states that the majority of its employees will make the move with the corporate operations. More details regarding the location and timing of the relocation will be announced as details are finalized.

HiViz Shooting Systems manufactures light-gathering sights, recoil pads and accessories for the shooting industry. For more information, contact Jeff Maust, Marketing Director at (970) 484-8242 or [email protected].

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69 COMMENTS

  4. Good move Mr. Howe. That’s what happens to a Good state when it gets bad legislators in charge, bad laws passed against a good Constitution. Let them pay the price for it politically and financially. Come to Texas, we welcome you here.

    • “Come to Texas, we welcome you here.”

      I’m afraid if they come to Texas, the company will only be forced to move yet again in twenty years. The demographics will be swinging hard to the Left over the coming years in Texas.

  5. Been meaning to pick up a new front site for the old 870. Will buy it today, and guess what brand?

  7. Hopeful, but it is April 1 … Some people pull mean pranks. (Zulu Nylon Gear: I’m looking at you a-holes.)

  8. And with this decision, I will go out of my way to identify products these folks produce that I may need, and buy from them. My hat is off to them for acting on their morals and conscience.

  9. Well, Colorado rolled the dice and now comes the fruit of the gamble. Lost jobs and with it lost revenue.

  11. I would imagine it is not an April fools joke – I can’t imagine a company as big as this would cannibalize its own reputation by basically saying, “Just kidding! We are staying in a state that infringes on our citizens. HaHa! Funny Right?”

    – D

    • That is what I was thinking…it would lack any actual humor to make it as a joke. There wouldn’t even be those ‘I see what they were trying to do, execution sucked though’ kind of things.

  13. I didn’t realize that Burris was based in CO, hopefully they move next. I think we as gun owners need to tell people “I don’t care if you make rifles, handguns, optics or just roll pins for firearms. If you stay in a state that has passed gun control measures in this last round of insanity I will not buy your products”

    • I’m looking at a Burris XTR 6-24 x 50 mm for my .338 Lapua. I hope they’ll speak up as well.

      Bravo, Hi-Viz.

  14. wow, this is good to see, and i sincerely hope that it is understood that 2a people take this current climate way too serious for this to be an April’s fool joke.

  15. Hmmm, I think the people who have been b*tching about these boycots being meaningless will have to start eating their words.

    • I will eat my words Memphis, only when the Owner of HiViz also announces that tax breaks or other financial incentives from his new state-to-be were not part of the moving equation. I suspect I’m in no danger of eating any time soon.

      Also, I wouldn’t call it “bit@@ing”, I would call it educating the simpletons to the unemotional tenets of capitalism.

      • I’m delighted that you place yourself above the simpletons. You will find that by doing that, you will have many more friends and folks who wish you well. Bazinga.

        • RK, anonymously recognizing the minions over the Internet who react with only emotion to this kind of news without a bit of further analysis doesn’t exactly keep me awake at night.

        • “RK, anonymously recognizing the minions over the Internet who react with only emotion to this kind of news without a bit of further analysis doesn’t exactly keep me awake at night.”

          Clearly it does keep you up at night and consumes your thoughts or you wouldn’t bother to post at all.

      • Joke, I have no issues with capitalism. If a company wants to charge over inflated prices or stay in an anti 2A state then power to them. I dont have to give them my business and they will likely survive. My issue is a little thing called INTEGRITY.

        • If tax breaks are playing a role in moving and the announced reason for moving is morality with Colorado gun laws, what is the level of INTEGRITY in that situation? We can play business ethics games for days. I know, we did it in college.

      • Given the costs and disruptions of moving a business especially small to medium businesses like Magpul or HiViz (and yes these are “small” companies), it would take some HUGE tax incentives to make the move worthwhile.

        However once you’ve decided to move and started looking OF COURSE you evaluate a place based on the cost of doing business, and if the tax incentives are there, you take them.

  16. Once they are comfortably in their new home (where a few cents of my purchase will go to a gun friendly state), my GP100 and SR9 will have new sights on the way! Bravo HiViz!

  17. this along with magpul…along with hunters banning colorado for any hunting trips this will put the hurt on the local business owner more than hurt the state

      • Business owners who pay taxes on their revenue and who can now directly point to the State Legislature and Governor and say “You’re decision directly impacted my business”.

        If the local GOP can play this well in the next cycle of elections they should have an easy time showing not just negative effects of gun control on crime but also painting everyone who voted for it as anti-business.

  18. they make good kit – have a few sights already.

    now will be buying more (to go along with magpul and larue and…).

  19. Good for HiViz. I hope that other companies will also give Gov. Bloomberg the finger.

    Yes, I wrote Gov. Bloomberg and I meant Gov. Bloomberg. Colorado’s sovereignty has been bought and paid for by Bloomberg and his billions, and Hickenlooper is merely his sock puppet. Rocky Mountain High my @ss. Colorado is now a vassal state run from New York.

  20. Perhaps me cynical, but I suspect tax breaks from an adjoining state are playing a role in this decision.

    • So what if they are? I’d expect a business looking to move to find the most tax friendly place to do business.

      The question is, if those were the only reasons to move, why didn’t they do so before? I’m guessing the firearm regulations, while just one of numerous reasons to leave, is still a reason. The fact that HiViz can run their business cheaper in another state on top of that is just another FU to the government/economic environment in Colorado.

      • Why? I suspect adjoining states are upping the ante to Colorado firearms businesses to move to their states when they sense blood in the water in Colorado. Please you guys, look deeper.

        • So it’s almost like the surrounding states are; not being dicks, and then not being dicks …again?

        • Moving a business is expensive. Moving a factory is hellaciously expensive. Most companies can’t do it without incentives from the destination state. What’s wrong with that?

        • Nothing wrong with tax breaks at all. Just weren’t mentioned in the emotional relocation announcement. I don’t believe for a minute this company is leaving only on principle, as the announcement indicates.

        • Nothing wrong with tax breaks at all. Just weren’t mentioned in the emotional relocation announcement. I don’t believe for a minute this company is leaving only on principle, as the announcement indicates.

          J&D:

          Could it be that you are missing the point? That they would NOT have made the decision to move but for the CO legislature’s decision to impose pointless anti-gun laws? Your odd position on the matter almost suggests that you’re a CO legislator who will now have to deal with some very hard blowback for voting the wrong way.

  21. Someone should compile a list of companies that have done this/considering doing this as well as ones that reside in states like Colorado proposing these kinds of laws (mass email campaign anyone?). I personally will support any company that is willing to do this.

  23. It is Not an April Fool’s joke.

    “April 1, 2013, Fort Collins, CO—HiViz Shooting Systems (a division of North Pass Ltd.), announces plans to relocate operations out of the state of Colorado due to recent changes in Colorado state gun control legislation. HiViz President and CEO Phillip Howe, states that talks are currently under way with officials of a neighboring state regarding the move.”

    http://www.hivizsights.com/relocation-plan

  24. Hooray! I hope other companies will also follow suit, firearms related or not! This is the way to win!

  25. I like companies who show strength of character and a willingness to put the welfare of their customers ahead of profit. These are the people I want to do business with. Bravo!!

  29. It is interesting to watch infringement of the 2nd amendment do to the country what social-networking has done to public discourse. By that I mean compartmentalizing a population based on expressed views – separating out and homogenizing points of view into new constituencies, so to speak.

    Voting with your feet is a sweet thing. And is also why the States should do everything to preserve their sovereignty from the Federal Government.

  30. Dang! I was saving the shekels for more AR mags… This throws a wrench in the works but I’ve been hankering to get new sights for the ole RIA anyway. It may be hard to support our allies in the fight when you live on an hourly wage, but what little I can spare, I give to the cause.

  31. Since CO’s unemployment rate is the lowest it has been in four years, I wonder how many of their employees will actually depart for lovely Kansas or Nebraska. Plus all the craft beers in the Fort, yum.

    • As soon as liberals “discover” a nice state, they move in and vote for the same policies that turned their old state into a welfare slum. Sadly, the only way to escape this red tide is to move somewhere with no theatres, no craft beer, no terrain, no walkable downtowns (see http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/ for a complete list). Find a state where, if a planeload of coastal liberals was forced to land there, they’d all die of boredom in half an hour.

  33. I’ve been looking for new sights for my Sig Sauer P220. Now I know what to get. Thanks for standing up for the rights of law-abiding citizens.

  34. I applaud Hi-Viz, Magpul and any other company who chooses to stand for liberty – even at great personal and financial expense. They emulate the principals of our Founding Fathers. I suspect their moral integrity will be justly rewarded.

    • Uh…what moral decision….it’s purely a business decision and an attempt to blackmail at that. Businesses don’t make moral decisions.

  35. Why do you have to be in the gun or accessory manufacturing biz to stand-up for our 2nd Amendment rights? How about individuals and businesses in any sector immigrating to more favorable environs and sending a message to the political elite?

  36. If th tax incentives from other states were enough to make them go, they would have done so already. The decidion of the company is just what they said; they can’t support the liberals gun laws, they do support thier customer. A change of location is the only answer, given the libs are trashing the constiution like this.

    I applaude a company who considers its customers like this.

  37. Awesome!

    Tyranny and ignorance must be resisted and its proponents made to pay a steep price at ever opportunity.

    For you Obama voters, this means you.

  39. I live in CO and it will probably hurt me economically, but I say yes, do not hunt or fish or even ski here. Do not feed the tyranny or it will continue to grow.

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