It’s been a very long time coming, but yesterday’s announcement by RemArms, LLC that it will close its Remington Arms production facility in Ilion, New York shouldn’t really have surprised anyone. Company CEO Ken D’Arcy said they’ll be consolidating their operations and headquarters at a new location in LaGrange, Georgia. That means the closure of America’s oldest firearms manufacturing facility next year.

Here’s Remington’s press release . . .

The iconic Remington Firearms brand was founded in 1816, and today Remington Firearms (RemArms) operates as one of the United States’ largest domestic producers of shotguns and rifles. Chief Executive Officer, Kenneth R. D’Arcy today announced that RemArms, America’s oldest firearms brand, will consolidate its firearms operations in LaGrange, Georgia. This will align all firearms manufacturing with our planned global headquarters and world class R&D facility in Georgia, which supports and welcomes the firearms industry.

“We are deeply saddened by the closing of the historic facility in Ilion. We have a dedicated workforce at the Ilion facility, but maintaining and operating those very old buildings is cost prohibitive, and NY’s legislative environment remains a concern for our industry. In the coming months, we expect to be working with our Ilion employees and their representative on transition issues.” said Ken D’Arcy, RemArms CEO. 

The move is no doubt sad and difficult for the upstate New York town and the remaining Remington workers there, but leaving Ilion has made good business sense for a very long time.

Remington has been transitioning production and other functions away from Ilion for years, long before the bankruptcy and the formation of RemArms, LLC. After New York rammed through the laughably-named SAFE Act into law in 2013 after Sandy Hook, Remington reacted entirely rationally to the hostile business environment. They opened a new facility in Huntsville, Alabama in 2014 that will continue to operate there as the company expands operations in LaGrange.

I’ve been to the Ilion plant. It’s ancient by any moden manufacturing standards, with production broken up among multiple buildings and floors. Maintaining that facility and trying to compete with the inherently higher costs involved just doesn’t make sense. Add to that the fact that New York government has made it abundantly clear that firearms businesses aren’t welcome in the state and it isn’t difficult to justify the move.

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35 COMMENTS

  1. Carefully pack those precious machine tools and go where you are wanted, post haste… 🙁

  2. There’s no difference between steel plants and factories moving outside the United States to other countries because of government regulations.

    And the fact that government regulations and laws have forced the gun industry to move outside of the states they once were founded in.

    The libertarians like to say that President Trump was wrong. That he can’t bring back industry that has left the country.

    • If that’s true, then these states are not going to be able to get back, the industries that were forced out, because of the regulations they passed. And it also means that they’re not getting any new industry either.

      Which means these states will only really be good for legal butt sex and drugs.

  3. Remington, I applaud your decision to leave this anti constitutional State. With the likes of Hochol and the previous Governor, Andrew Cuomo this State is no longer a friendly place to do business.

  4. “Which means these states will only really be good for legal butt sex and drugs.”

    Technology = automation = unemployment = mass extermination by famine (the Marxist solution) OR a large leisure class (the American Dream).

    Prolly oughta get used to it.

    • I don’t know how much money it generates? But I do know that the sex tourism business, is big business in places like San Francisco.

      But the only thing they’re manufactured are STDs.

    • Yuval said as much to the WEF. The future is automation and we’ll have to find something to keep the useless feeders busy. He answered his own question: drugs and video games.

      Think opium dens the size of cities where the comatose don’t realize they’re starving to death until it’s too late.

      This is the future that all those glorious crusaders meeting at COP28 right now are planning for us.

      • Legal butt sex and drugs has become the opium of the atheist, the opium of a socialist progressive. And like any drug addict, they will give up their civil rights in order to satisfy the thirst that they have.

        And they will certainly force you to give up your civil rights. In order to satisfy the thirst that they have.

        These people don’t have God, so they have found something else. What Karl Marx said all those years ago still applies.

        The government wants you distracted. And the government will make sure and keep you distracted with legal butt sex and drugs.

        You can insert the Welfare Iindustrial Complex if that makes you more comfortable.

    • An automated factory is much better than no factory. You will still need a few button pushers. You will still need repairmen. You will still need various contractors to maintain the building and grounds. Those businesses will need other, professional services. The businesses will pay local property tax. The salaries and payments they make to employees and contractors will contribute to the income tax base and the local economy, helping others. It is still vitally important to bring back and keep factories.

  6. I know I should feel sorry for the workers that are out of a job, but these are the same people that made the shoddy product that drove the customers away.

    • Blame the quality inspectors that said the guns were good-to-go…

  7. I feel sorry for Ilion, this isn’t the fault of this tiny upstate town that depends on this plant for much of its economy. I hope that they can at least maintain a museum there which will help bring in some more tourism income. The plant currently does tours and there is a modest amount of people touring the Erie Canal on boats traveling through and bicyclists and long-distance hikers following the canal on the trails.

    • “I hope that they can at least maintain a museum there which will help bring in some more tourism income.”

      A museum of guns in a state that hates guns?

  8. New York doesn’t want them there. Remington isn’t wanted. The best thing they can do is move. It might be easier since the facility is such a relic. Other manufacturers really should take a hint.

    To that end…the south welcomes you.

  9. With the loss of a large corporate tax base plus the loss of taxes from well-paid employees New York is going to double-down on remaining businesses and working people to make up the difference in revenue. Tax-payers of New York get ready for the fiscal reaming you’re going to receive…after all, you will only be paying your “fair share”.

    The sheer number of “Gimmees” and guilty, white Liberals in NY will ensure the Democrat machine survives.

    • That particular region is not at all for the current government setup but……yeah there is a fairly massive financial reckoning on the horizon and it will be a wild ride for cities/counties that have a lot of services/gov employees. Probably going to suck to be in any of the larger cities or overly spendy towns for upwards of a decade.

      • Yeah, there’s a huge difference between upstate and the stinkhole that is the NYC area down on the coast. It’s like comparing rural Illinois to Shithcagoland.

        • Very true. Although upstate NY uses tons of government social programs, so while the mindset is usually very conservative, voting patterns are more variable than you might expect.

  11. Now they can house migrants in the factory buildings and the people who previously worked.there can make a few bucks selling drugs, women and children around the encampment.

  12. It was apparent at the time when Remington (Cerberus Capital) owned and moved Marlin the machines weren’t right. Getting a straight rifle was all but luck, not sure who’s to blame. Marlin won a deserved bad reputation, and I’m glad Ruger bought the Marlin division.

  13. Remington was great while it had quality control, I have a 1990s 870 and two Remington 700s that are real sweet, but my Model R51 pistol, a Gen 2, is terrible.

  14. Northern Arms companies manufacturing firegunms in the South.
    That’s just to funny.
    The South shall rise again and this time the Yankees were the cause.
    BTW all us Rem Illion New York 870 owners just got collectors cards boosted.

  15. It’s been a long time coming. NYS is not exactly “gun friendly” and the plant is kind of ancient. I am sorry to see it go, but Rem has been threatening to shut it down for about 10 yrs now.

  16. Remington’s CEO greed mongers move to Capitalvanian Georgia had zero to do with firearms laws.

    Rather it was a move to the worker slave state of Capitalvanian Georgia where Remington can pay dirt cheap wages, give workers no benefits or retirement or have any meaningful workplace safety rules.

    Remington failed not because of high labor costs but because of management raping the profits and using none of the profits to improve quality control, introduce new firearms, or even making spare parts available to the consumer direct from the factory.

    Remington pawed the spare parts sales off on distributors who in turn only stocked high demand parts leaving the less popular parts totally unavailable to the hapless consumer who was now stuck with a product he could not even get parts for. No wonder so many people stopped even buying anything Remington made. Even a retarded Ape would have known what the outcome would be when Remington let management rape every penny of profits for their own salaries.

    • dacian, the DUNDERHEAD, Here is a RED HOT NEWS FLASH for you. America is a CAPITALIST Country. RemArms has every right to move to a more favorable climate. I have another RED HOT NEWS FLASH for you. The 13th, 14th, and 15 Amendments freed the slaves. Georgia hasn’t had any slaves since 1863, when Pres Abe Lincoln, issued the Emancipation Proclamation. I guess they don’t teach that at the schools you allegedly went to?

      Remington went backrupt due to a lopsided asinine judgment making it resposnible for the deaths of people with the Bushmaster AR-15’s It had nothing to do with “high labor costs” etc. Working at Reminton is a rather good job and paide verhy well.

      What “spare parts” did Remington cause to be “unavaible?” Enumerate please.

      Have you ever learned what the firing sequence of a cartridge is?

  17. It’s been a long time coming. NYS is not exactly “gun friendly” and the plant is kind of ancient. I am sorry to see it go, but Rem has been threatening to shut it down for about 10 yrs now.

  19. Another article saying they will continue to operate in Alabama. WTF. Why is everyone so dumb and think that facility is still open when it’s been closed since the 2020 bankruptcy. They will now have 1 and only 1 facility in LaGrange Georgia. Huntsville was a failure and is no longer open. People really need to get facts before writing an article

  20. Just as I did more than fifty years ago and tens of thousands of working people do every year, they are vacating a business-hostile New York State. Welcome to the South. You will love it here.

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