Birthplace of the Second Amendment 1765: Pennsylvania wants gunmakers

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Pennsylvania wants gunmakers

By York Dispach

As some states that are home to manufactures of guns and gun components move to pass stricter gun regulations, two Pennsylvania state representatives have laid out a welcome mat in hopes of drawing the companies to the state.

Representatives Seth Grove, R-Dover Township, and Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler County, issued a joint news release Monday that announces they are reaching out to several out-of-state gun and gun component makers, including Beretta, Magpul and Remington, and encouraging them to move to the Keystone State.

"We'll be more than happy to have additional manufacturing," Grove said. "Pennsylvania is known all over the country for clinging to its guns, and it's time that we use this reputation to our advantage."

In reaching out to the companies, Pennsylvania has joined a long list of states that have already done so.
Hopeful: With a high number of gun owners and supporters of the Second Amendment and a pending bill would make any new federal gun control laws unenforceable in Pennsylvania, Metcalfe said, the state is a good fit for gun manufactures.

"With America's single largest per capita representation of National Rifle Association members and more than one million licensed hunters and anglers ... Pennsylvania is a natural fit for any of our nation's major producers of guns, ammunition or accessories that are currently looking for a new home," Metcalfe said.

Of the three companies, Grove said it would be logical for Accokeek, Md.-based Beretta USA Corp. to move north of the Mason-Dixon Line, hopefully to York County where "world-class employees" reside.

In light of the Maryland legislature's advancement of a ban on assault weapons coupled with Beretta's history of moving operations, Grove said the company could opt to move out of the state.

West Virginia and Virginia are also looking to capitalize on the company's dissatisfaction with the measure.

Jeff Reh, a member of the Board of Directors for Beretta U.S.A. Corp. testified last month before Maryland state officials that Beretta has two other companies in Maryland that import or sell firearms. Together, the companies employ about 400 people in the state. Reh also noted that the companies are projected to pay about $31 million in taxes to the state from 1997 to 2014.

Reh testified that the nearly 500-year history of the Beretta family shows commitment to the community in which it locates its business. The state, however, isn't reciprocating by advancing the gun-control bill, he said.

"Instead we are confronted with a state government that wants to ban our products at a time, by the way, when numerous other state governments are courting our investment," Reh said in written testimony to a Senate panel. "It is worth noting that these states also do not try to blame a product for human misconduct."

Unlikely: Grove cast doubts that Colorado-based Magpul and Remington Arms, based in New York state, would move to Pennsylvania. Remington, which makes guns and ammunition and employs about 1,000, has been based in the same town for more than 200 years.

Pennsylvania is one of a number of state to approach the company after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law regulations earlier this year that have been touted as the "toughest gun control laws in the nation."

Magpul, which makes gun components, including high-capacity ammunition magazines, threatened to leave the state if it bans individuals from owning magazines with more than 15 rounds. The company employees 200 people.

Since the company is nearly across the country, Grove said its unlikely Magpul would move east to Pennsylvania.

Metcalfe and Grove are also calling on Pennsylvanians who support gun rights to attend the state's annual Second Amendment Action Day on Tuesday, April 23 at 10 a.m. in the State Capitol Rotunda. Supporters can also sign the Armed Pennsylvania: Say to No Gun Control petition by visiting RepMetcalfe.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. -- Reach Greg Gross at ggross@yorkdispatch.com.

(c)2013 The York Dispatch (York, Pa.)

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It All Started Here . . .

Frontier Mercersburg in 1765 was the "birthplace" of the right we now refer to as "the Second Amendment", or, "the right to bear arms". It was here that individuals for the first time, some would say divinely, embraced the link between "Life and Liberty". . . and struck the first blow for Freedom.

Historically the right to bear arms goes back even before our founding as a nation to the Glorious Revolution of 1689 when William III agreed to the English Bill of Rights. If one can look at revolution like a volcanic eruption in nature, you understand that often from the destruction come the seeds of new human values and beliefs. In this case the independence of the human spirit, the right to know God for oneself, and to trust your conscience was hard won in this revolution of the human soul.

One crucible begets the necessity for another and on the frontier in America the right to defend ones religious beliefs was becoming the right to participate in the decisions of government that impact my "self". Freedom of the soul was becoming freedom of the heart and mind. Smith's Rebellion began as an act they justified under the rubric of defending oneself because government had failed in its obligation to protect Life, Liberty and Property. This was the first assertion of this principle aimed directly at British Military Authority as well as the incompetent government of John Penn - anywhere in the colonies.

In the end, Smith's Rebellion was the first armed resistance against British Military Rule leading up to the American Revolution. It was the first American triumph over the best military force in the world. It was the first time upon defending oneself that Americans had proclaimed we can rule ourselves.

It would be ten years before the battles at Lexington and Concord.

...Let Them Take Arms

The "Right to Bear Arms" . . .or 2nd Amendment is one of the most discussed and contentious of all the amendments of the Bill of Rights. It is, in fact, the only amendment that contains not only the seeds but the actual instruments of the revolution itself. Further, it gives real affirmation to Thomas Jefferson's quote . . .
"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

It is for this reason, if no other, that the Government and its functionaries vociferously assail and obfuscate the text of this simple assertion. More, it is for this reason, and in the face of the perennial onslaught that its defense and affirmation is essential to the survival of the republic.

Frontier Mercersburg & The Justice William Smith House

The frontier town of Mercersburg, PA. in the 1760's, although typical of many settlements along the Appalachian Mountains played a pivotal role in the creation of what was to become the "Bill of Rights".

Frontiersmen like James Smith and the Black Boys, many of whom were inhabitants of the Mercersburg environs, were early participants in a series of conflicts with the British government that established principles the eventually lead to the inclusion of the "right to bear arms" in the Bill of Rights.

Much of the focus, centers on the domicile (and likely place of business) of Justice William Smith.

Birthplace of the Second Amendment 1765

Pages

Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - Bill of Rights

Preservation and Proposition

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Pennsylvania wants gunmakers

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