Okay, okay… this is seriously good news:
Renowned firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson ditched deep blue Massachusetts and moved its headquarters to friendlier pastures in Tennessee. Although the move was announced in 2021, it was on Saturday that the company officially opened its new 650,000-square feet building in Maryville as part of a $125 million relocation effort.
The company has been in New England since its founding in 1852, but Massachusetts’ strict gun laws are at least partly to blame for their exodus.
Not to mention the Massholes’ steep taxes, which the article notes.
And there was shooty fun and joyousness all round, you betcha:
Yesterday at Smith & Wesson’s new headquarters in Tennessee, Jerry Miculek set the #NRA World Record for hitting six steel plates with a 9 mm revolver at seven yards after a 1.88-second run.
So: apart from not wanting to stay in the People’s Soviet of Massachusetts, why the move?
S&W CEO Mark Smith cited a welcoming regulatory environment and close collaboration with the Tennessee state government as a crucial piece of the plan to relocate. The company has said the new facility would create hundreds of jobs.
Tennessee has moved to loosen gun restrictions in recent years under Republican leadership. In 2021, the state passed a law to allow most adults 21 and older to carry handguns without a permit that requires first clearing a state-level background check and training.
Yeah, okay fine, but what are we Texans? Chopped liver? We have all the good stuff that Tennessee has, also better BBQ.
But let me not quibble. Anytime a company — any company — comes to its senses and gets out of Communist America, it’s a good thing.
These are just a few of the S&W guns I used to own (before that tragic day crossing the Brazos by canoe), and under the right circumstances, I’d own quite a few more again.
I worked at Smith & Wesson for almost 7 years. Not my favorite guns, however, excellent benefits and decent pay. The health insurance was really good. Employees used to get a pre paid debit style card each year paid for by the company to pay for co pays and other misc out of pocket medical expenses on top of the health insurance. And a percentage off of the products. Used to be half off MSRP.
Then tons of idiot politicians started their bullshit of banning everything that they deemed evil because they said doing so would stop the crimes in the hoods that surrounded the company. But according to the politicians the products were on of the major blames.
That’s like blaming Honda, Ford and Bud for drunk drivers. Stupid.
The next bullshit came when Maura Healey, lesbian twat licker, who at the time was Attorney General banned the sale of “assault weapons in 2016”. This cunt later became Governor. The big draw for voters? She’s a vagina who licks other vaginas. Oh and she sued Donald Trump a shit load of times using taxpayer money when she was AG.
Next act up was letters being sent out to carry permit holders to turn in any bump sticks and trigger cranks you possess or you get jail time. Yes letters from the state were sent to permit holders. I’m not sure the criminals got this memo. There was a news report and I think like 4 were turned in state wide.
A few years ago, the politicians wanted to change things from just having assault weapons banned for civilians (cops get to keep their personal and duty assault weapons) to wanting to pass a law that bans the manufacture of assault weapons in mass. This would have decimated gun manufacturers.
So S&W moved. I don’t blame them
While I’m not a huge fan of their guns (I prefer Springfield plastic fantastic over the M&P and I like Ruger Revolvers), the point here is as Americans we should all want any and all manufacturers around. Without them prices go up on our personal protection devices and the liberals get another win.
Oh and as of October 2023, the asshole politicians in Mass are trying to pass another anti gun bill which among many things (123 pages of bullshit) would ban some pistols (they would be considered assault weapons) and makes a carry permit almost useless (no carry in public buildings and you can’t bring a gun onto any private property (stores, other people’s homes etc) without prior permission from the property owner. Doing so would be a felony.
Nice that the politicians have Americans rights in mind
All this is being done while the state is housing illegals in hotel rooms, all over the state, and giving them medical care, transportation and letting the crotch fruits of the illegals attend schools. All paid for by the tax payers.
This is why S&W moved. To get away from this bullshit.
Can they grow a second pair of balls and eliminate the lawyer hole on their revolvers now, too? Seriously, how many sales have they lost because of that? How many sales have they gained? What is the real bottom line on that? I’ve passed on buying a few of their classic series simply because of that. The one S&W I have with a lawyer hole (.38 snub airweight) was bought DESPITE the lawyer hole, simple cause I wanted a new .38 snub and that was the only thing available. Otherwise, I’d have bought a Taurus or perhaps a Charter Arms.
That said, I fondly look over all the antique Smith’s on the various gun auction sites and think, one day, lottery, one day.
But hey, congrats for Tennessee.
The only 2 modern revolvers I know or from S&W you can get without the internal lock is the 442 and 642. And you have to order a specific sku as they make both with and without.
The other BS that is peddled is that forged is better than cast. And that depends. Ruger revolvers have cast frames and they are strong and hold up well. Depends on the casting. Just because something is forged doesn’t automatically make it stronger than any casting.
Another horrible thing is the customer service. Omg. Seriously. If you ever buy a modern S&W and need help due to something being broken or not working correctly, good luck. Search the YouTube for S&W customer service. That will give you an idea.
Ruger put some locks under the grip of some of the first run LCR’s. That changed quickly and was phased out. New ones don’t have that. And no other Ruger revolver I’ve ever seen has an internal lock.
For me,
Revolvers – Ruger
Metal Semi Auto – CLASSIC Sig (P229, P226)
Plastic Fantastic – Springfield
Be careful with antique smiths. Early 357’s and 44’s wear out in the throat area and also frames can crack. Heat treating and metulurgy is better today, assembly was better backin the day though (hand fitted) ,
Though with machined parts of today hand fitting isn’t needed nearly as much so most things today are assembled.
If you do buy a classic smith and Wesson, just be sure you are getting a good one instead of someone else’s junk they are offloading preying on those who don’t want the lock.
And again , Ruger makes good stuff for a fair price and they have awesome customer service.
Yeah, I have several Ruger single action revolvers and can’t say enough good things about them. Absolutely tanks. Been a fan of their revolvers since the 80’s.
Maryville, TN is “benefitting” from Murcan flight from the liberal strongholds. They now have S&W as well as a major Amazon regional hive. Five – ten years and the area will be indistinguishable from CA. That’s a shame, too. 🙁
Tennessee also has a good Senator, Marsha Blackburn. She is smart, well spoken and I think she is hot. The accent and her look. She is a very attractive lady.
Massachusetts has hood rats, libtard activists and butch bulldyke lesbians running the show. It’s the hoods and the velvet mafia in charge.
Tennessee got the Beretta headquarters and plant a few years ago.
Maryland became too blue for them as well.
It’s a shame that S&W is moving but they were driven out by the lunatics in Boston. and lots of good paying jobs are moving with S&W. I’m sure other machine shops and tool makers in the area will suffer as well.
I used to shoot at S&W’s range years ago and it was a great facility. Now I believe it has been leveled and some other building was built there.
John Parker wouldn’t recognize the anti rights culture in MA if he were to come back.
JQ
“I used to shoot at S&W’s range years ago and it was a great facility. Now I believe it has been leveled and some other building was built there.”
It’s still there. Only open for police though and owned by the paper company next door that bought it from S&W
https://www.masslive.com/news/2022/01/springfield-sublets-east-springfield-police-shooting-range-to-state-executive-office-of-public-safety-and-security-5-year-agreement-worth-18-million.html?outputType=amp