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The state already had a group of successful home-grown companies, such as Daniel Defense near Savannah, and one international heavyweight, Glock, located in Smyrna since the 1980s, Brantley said.

However, economic development recruiters were eager to attract more. Georgia sent representatives to the [SHOT] show in 2015.

“We went and rolled out the welcome mat and recruited them,” he said.

German gunmaker Heckler & Koch opened shop in Columbus in 2017, bringing more than 60 jobs and paying a wage averaging $66,600. Georgia promised it $3.3 million in tax breaks and exemptions.

Taurus was lured in with $39.9 million in tax breaks, grants, training costs and job credits. It promised to pay an average annual wage of $35,000. Remington, a 200-year-old company, was promised $27.9 million in state grants, tax breaks and other help. The company says it will create 856 jobs at an average wage of $65,900.

Brantley said they are solid jobs in what has been a growth industry.

He shrugs off the people who would rather not see Georgia become a magnet for gun manufacturers.

No matter what the industry is, critics can find controversy, Brantley said. “Some would say the film industry is controversial. Automotive. No matter what, there are going to be some that are against or for it.”

“Ultimately, it’s our responsibility to help provide jobs and investment for the community and our citizens,” he said. “They are legal products.”

— Christopher Quinn in Georgia quietly becomes a top gun-making state

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48 COMMENTS

  1. H&K: $66,600 average salary
    Remington: $65,900 average salary
    Taurus: “You want fries with that?” average salary.

      • 35k is pretty low for an average wage. It might be ok for a starting wage. Maybe that is why we can get such good prices on G3C’s. That average pay doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence (and I did recently purchase a G3C).

        By the way, I hear that Glock is forcing their employees to take the Covid jab, or lose their jobs. That being the case, F*ck Glock. Or maybe “Go Brandon yourself Gaston”. I like my Glock 19, but usually buy mainly Rugers anyway (sellout Bill being long gone).

    • That’s probably in large part due to where in Georgia they set up camp. A quick investigation reveals that Bainbridge is a relatively small majority black community in rural southwest Georgia. The population there has been stagnant since Eisenhower was president. They appeared to be so desperate for jobs that according to Wikipedia the subsidy is worth $130k per job. $17/hr probably isn’t a bad blue collar wage there. Meanwhile Taurus relocated from Miami, where you probably can make $17/hr flipping burgers, but you can’t fault them for making good business decisions and keeping their firearms affordable.

      • I was just in Georgia last month. 15 an hour is a decent blue collar wage. 17 is a step up. In a majority black community? The gun industry just did more for poc than the left has in the last 50 years.

      • Meanwhile the moronic chick running the Iowa Dept of Econ Dev think passin out big $ to attract server farms for Fakebook and Giggle and Chimazon warehouses is “economic development” and “high tech”.

        • “Chimazon”. I like that. Gonna borrow it. 🙂

          I clearly recall reading – long ago when Sam Walton was still alive and with us – that he insisted WalMart source from small family-owned businesses and manufacturers within the U.S.A. He was very much an American, and wanted to be a channel of commerce to bring small producers’ products to the wider market.

          That all went out the window when Sam passed away and his empire was divided up amongst his five adult children. From what I’ve read, three of them took over the business and promptly began sourcing from China in an strategy to maximize profits and undercut competitors.

      • Aw, just havin’ a bit of fun with Taurus, Gov. But your point is well taken. In an economically depressed area, an average of $17/hr ain’t bad.

  2. Remington can’t get back to full production soon enough for me. I won’t buy a pump shotgun made in Turkey or China and I can’t find a Mossberg 500 or 590 anywhere.

  3. georgia is a red state
    its is a bastion of firearms production
    republicans have solid majorities in both houses of the legislature
    the governor is a republican
    theyre about to go permitless carry
    yet in spite of all this
    were to believe that they sent a democrat to the white house and two democrats to the us senate chamber in 2020

    • The republicans in the Georgia legislature and governors office let the Dems get away with the apparent election fraud.

      • “apparent election fraud“

        Yes, defeated former president Donald Trump was a bit heavy-handed in his demand that the Georgia Attorney General ‘find’ 11,000 votes.

        And here’s a newsflash regarding George’s recent elections, this just in:

        “Georgia DA investigating Trump closer to decision on charges
        The Georgia prosecutor weighing whether Donald Trump and others committed crimes by trying to pressure state election officials said a decision on whether to bring charges could come as early as the first half of this year
        By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press
        January 10, 2022, 9:34”

        Happy New Year!

  4. This is good news and a bit ironic. During the Civil War one of the impediments the Confederacy had to contend with was a lack of small arms manufacturing capacity. Now with talk of a second civil war common in the media states like MA, CN, NY, etc are forcing small arms manufacturing south. I have a pickup and am willing to help with the move.

      • Which at this point in time are probably much more significant in a potential civil war than small arms production. The radical left has been winning the culture war for decades.

  5. The usual way for Georgia: government corruption. Businesses get paid off with tens or hundreds of millions in tax money on deals made under the table and approved in rubber stamp votes by city or county boards.

        • Well, I agree that it sucks but local governments are so crazy for jobs that they give away the farm. I don’t blame the companies. Their job is to make a profit and stay in business, not throw away money as governments are prone to do. If I owned a major company I would look around for the states with the most friendly legislation, best tax plan and the most incentives to build in that state also. Blame the politicos and the professional government studies graduates who are selling the farm.

          Somebody was complaining about how Bezos took advantage of the Postal people. Duhhh. A contract is a binding AGREEMENT between two parties, neither of whom must enter into the contract if it doesn’t suit their purposes. The P.O. needs to grow up and get some real managers in there instead of political appointees.

  6. Anon, when Georgia agreed to economic incentives to lure any industry to their state Georgia did not agree to pay the company anything. Georgia just agreed not to take something that the company already owned. It’s called a tax.

  7. Anon, Alabama did the same thing to get Mercedes to build a plant in Tuscaloosa, and the area and Alabama in general has come out ahead majorly, dispelling to a great degree the notion that Alabama is full of ignorant rednecks. I have friends who work there, and they are WELL compensated.
    Offering a company tax incentives to move to a state is common and everyone wins. Works a lot better than taxing companies to death for the privilege of being in a state…looking at you, New York.

  9. Disheartening to hear Brantley end his article with ” They are legal products. ”
    Of course their legal products, has it gone so far that people think arms are illegal?
    I suppose to some yes.

    • Not only are they “legal”, I think they are generally beneficial to society, unlike many other industries (such as Hollywood, higher Education, and Fractional reserve banking).

  10. Some states have bourbon trails, whiskey trails, or wine trails, you go in and see the company, learn some history, and maybe even trail a product. Come on Georgia give us a gun trail!!!

  11. My Georgia based company plays a small role in the gun business by importing M1A chassis stocks for the M1A/M14 from Canada, and being the sole source for M14 EBR trigger shoes made in the USA.

  12. I am very comfortable with the state government of Georgia granting waivers and tax incentives to the gun industry. Just as I am sure there are people who are comfortable with a state government providing “free” abortions. Or “free” crystal meth and “free” marijuana. Or “free” s3x change operations. Or “free” condoms. Or “free” shots inside the “free” government intravenous drug administering center.

    At least the gun industry is providing employment at a high pay scale. As well as producing more taxpayers (taxation is theft) to the government. Instead of producing more drug addicts, that don’t provide anything to the government, or the rest of society.

  13. The industry will tell us a fairy tale about regulations and RKBA, but the reality was just tax-payer funded cash handouts.
    Corporate welfare sucks, whether it’s pig farms, tech startups or gun factories.

  14. A tax reduction is not the same as a cash handout. I would suggest a entry level course in economics by some school that is NOT teaching Keynes style economics but perhaps the Austrian school of economics.

    • You ignore the reality of the taxation system.

      You and I pay our taxes, and in return receive many services from the government.
      Roads, bridges, airports, river ports are built and maintained by the government using taxpayer dollars that you and I provide.

      Thus, we are able to use this infrastructure because we had a hand in paying for it and continue to do so.

      We have a jurisprudence system that adjudicates our disagreements, a law-enforcement system that provides services to businesses such as adjudicating bad checks, unpaid accounts, employee embezzlement and pilferage, real estate transactions, etc.

      But when a business receives a massive tax incentive, do you think they refused to accept those services?

      No, they continue to use every bit of our infrastructure to make their profits, they continue to use our government systems to adjudicate their differences, enforce their contracts, prosecute their embezzlers, etc. and yet they think they should not pay for any of those services, just let the burden fall on you and me.

      It sounds like you want socialism for big corporations, to use our infrastructure and our society for their profit and yet not pay one penny for it and place the burden upon ordinary citizens… No thank you.

      • In a nutshell, government spending is not a case of too little income, it is a case of too much unnecessary spending. Giving a tax break to a company to provide a significant job creation facility is an investment in future income. It isn’t like inviting 500 people into town and providing them with assistance in setting up which some smaller towns in the midwest are doing, it is investing in a future income stream. I have read that every new job created also provides 5 new jobs in ancillary services needed by the original worker. That is probably a chamber of commerce urban legend, but there is no question that a large company coming to town also provides support service companies. For the opposite side of the coin, look at the rust belt and how many small business died when the large companies abandoned the town to move elsewhere or worse yet, overseas. Detroit probably is the best known example. Yeah, I know the chamber is touting how downtown Detroit is making a comeback. Drive out to the outlying areas. Looks almost like Hiroshima in September 1945.
        I live in Kallyforniya and I know that the services you talk about don’t exist in the large cities in this state. Have you read about San Fransicko? City is spending millions in cleaning the streets of defecated matter, needles and garbage and it still looks like some poor African city. Police service is almost non-existent. Try getting an officer to come investigate the burglary that ruined the inside of your house. The officials are making a show of doing something about the gang style grab and dash mob burglaries only because the TV crews are on scene. A one man grab and dash won’t even get a police response. If you are a civil litigant, don’t count on your case being heard by a judge any time before five years. If your case is worth enough you can hire a retired judge to hear the case for a trial by a pro-tem judge for a $1,000 a day. Just like if you have a store with enough sales you can hire a private security force. If you and your wife are running a small jewelry store forget about private security and forget about police protection. You are on your own.

        I can’t comment about other states, but in this state our taxes are only going to line the pockets of politicians and bureaucrats. and not going for the services we are paying for. The streets in this small town look like the streets I encountered in Japan in 1956. The Japanese had a good excuse. We had bombed every paved road we could find repeatedly and 11 years after the war was over, they were still recovering. The officials claim they aren’t getting the tax money from the gas tax that they used to which is a lie. They are getting more money than ever and still raise gas taxes. Even with the all electric cars or hybrid cars, the dollar volume is up because people are spending more time in their cars going nowhere because roads just aren’t being built or repairs in a timely manner. We spend big dollars here in this state on landscaping the highways. Well, that is all very nice and good but the road surfaces are full of potholes. They didn’t do a survey of anyone but I would be willing to wager a large sum that if asked if the drivers preferred a pothole free road surface or pretty flowers and shrubs along the roadway the majority vote would be for a pothole free road surface.

        Please don’t try to talk to me about all the “services” government provides. They are falling down on the J.O.B.

  15. Great! Georgia lured gun manufactures that promised (relative to the area) high paying jobs. Southern Georgia isn’t in the greatest of shape. Not eastern Kentucky bad, but certainly in low range as far as opportunities go. You cannot overstate the impact decent paying job opportunities have on an area. Just look at areas where companies have shipped their manufacturing to Chiiiiina. Georgia will make the investment back many times over.
    Usually these things are structured so that, if the promised jobs don’t meet the agreements, there are significant penalties or adjustments to the incentive. So the manufactures will do their best to provide the jobs/pay scale.
    Anything Georgia can do to bring jobs in to these semi-rural areas and keep from losing the young to Atlanta or other states is a wise investment for them. And there is plenty enough room left for some ammunition manufactures! Three major southeastern ports that actually work are nearby is a bonus. Come on down y’all, to the sunbelt!

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