Apr 10, 2013 Jake Hammer
PTR makes great rifles, especially their version Of HKs
through a deal with the company. The PTR-91 is brilliant. Big loss for
Connecticut who deserves to lose them…
Excerpted from AP
BRISTOL — A Connecticut gun-maker has announced it intends to leave
the state following the passage of gun control legislation it says
tramples on the rights of citizens and does not show enough
consideration for the industry.
Bristol-based PTR says in a statement posted on its website that it
has not decided where it will move, but it has commitments from most
employees to relocate. The company makes military-style rifles and
employs more than 40 people.
PTR Vice President John McNamara said Wednesday that it expects to
make a more formal announcement about a move within six weeks.
Several Connecticut gun manufacturers have indicated they are
thinking about moving after Gov. Dannel P. Malloy last week signed the
law imposing new restrictions on weapons and large-capacity magazines.
Excerpteded from CT Now:
During the three-month debate over gun control in Connecticut, the name
PTR Industries Inc. barely came up, but the Bristol manufacturer with
50 employees has become the first maker of military-style rifles to
announce its exit from Connecticut since the state adopted a strict ban
on sales last week.
“Although PTR has not decided upon a specific relocation site at this
time, over the coming weeks the company will be actively considering
offers from states that are friendly to the industry. We hope to have a
site identified within the next six weeks, and hope to have our move
completed by the end of this year,” the company said in an announcement
on its web site and in a press release.
A majority of the company’s employees, “which includes ALL of our
management personnel, engineering staff and skilled gunsmiths,” has
agreed to move, the statement said, even though the location has not
been determined.
PTR said its employees had “a heavy heart but a clear mind” in
reaching the decision — and the company said it’s inviting other
manufacturers and suppliers to join it in departing Connecticut. It’s
unclear how many people at different supplier companies work on PTR
rifle parts, but all of the components are made in Connecticut, said
John McNamara, the PTR vice president of sales.
The company’s statement echoes comments made by others in the
industry — who are upset that no one saw the language of the law until
the day before it was adopted by the state House of Representatives,
without a public hearing.
“The disregard for public input…and the haphazard production of the
legislation should be insulting to any citizen or business in CT,” the
statement said. “It should be a shock to us all that such landmark
legislation could be written in one week, and seen by no one (including
the rank-and-file legislators) prior to its emergency certification.”
McNamara said the company had representatives at the Capitol this year but, he added, “We’re a little bit under the radar.”
PTR, which stands for Precision Target Rifles, was started in 2002
when a predecessor company bought tools and designs for the HK-91 rifle
from a Portuguese firm, Fabrica Militar, according to the PTR web site.
The company at first made copies of the HK-91, then branched out into
its own line. It reorganized in 2010, the web site said, and has beefed
up its manufacturing, customer service and support.
PTR is not likely to be the only Connecticut firearms firm to move
operations out of state as a result of the law. Even before the Newtown
tragedy on Dec. 14 and the threat of a ban that followed, firms received
many relocation offers from states in the South, West and Midwest.
After Newtown, offers from other states became a flood. mpanies have
said they are considering a move.
Under the new Connecticut law, signed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy last
Thursday, most military-style rifles are banned outright for retail sale
in Connecticut. Firms are allowed to make and ship firearms that are
banned. Still, the owners of manufacturers including Stag Arms in New
Britain, with 200 employees, and magazine-maker Ammunition Storage
Components, which has 100 people in New Britain, say they may be forced
to leave by a backlash from customers in other states who refuse to buy
from companies that remain here.
PTR, which has “1776″ as the last four digits of its phone number,
focuses its statement on rights and freedoms in Connecticut, where ten
of the 34 “master dealers” of PTR guns are located.
“The rights of the citizens of CT have been trampled upon. The safety
of its children is at best questionably improved from the day of the
tragedy that triggered the events that lead (sic) us here. Finally, due
to an improperly drafted bill, manufacturing of modern sporting rifles
in the State of CT has been effectively outlawed. With a heavy heart but
a clear mind, we have been forced to decide that our business can no
longer survive in Connecticut – the former Constitution state.”
PTR’s chief executive, Josh Fiorini, said in a Bristol Press story on
March 2, “I was born and raised in Bristol and most of my employees are
from Bristol. We’d like to stay here, but we are certainly aware of the
fallout from the Sandy Hook shooting.”
PTR moved from Farmington to Bristol in early 2012 and changed its
name from PTR-91 to PTR Industries, reflecting a broader product line
that was — and remains — part of a hot trend in the gun industry. The
10,600-square-foot building that the company occupies is valued at
$595,300 by the city of Bristol, and the company has equipment assessed
at $1.2 million, almost all of which is exempt from local property taxes
under state rules.
McNamara declined to give details about PTR’s 2010 reorganization.
There is no record of a bankruptcy filing by the company but in
November, 2010, a German parts-maker, SiTec GMBH, sued PTR in U.S.
District Court, seeking $117,000 in damages resulting from unpaid bills.
The case settled ten weeks later.
The PTR Facebook page, with more than 400 comments about the
announcement by midday Wednesday, included dozens from people around the
country urging the company to move to their states. In Connecticut,
some dealers praised the PTR product line, including the models based on
the HK-91.
“It’s better than the original gun,” said Mark Byers, an employee at
the Newington Gun Exchange. For Connecticut, he said, “that’s going to
be a huge loss.”
Critics of the ban, in and out of the industry, say Malloy should
have realized the state would lose good employers such as PTR. Andrew
Doba, Malloy’s spokesman, said in response, “The governor thinks about
job creation 24 hours a day, however on this particular issue he thinks
public safety must be a priority and the bill he signed into law
increases public safety.”
The added background checks and stricter access and registration
rules could well improve safety but it’s debatable whether the ban will
do so, considering that military-style rifles are responsible for only a
tiny fraction of gun deaths, and are widely available — with an
estimated 8 million in circulation and no national ban in place.
What’s not debatable is that the firearms industry has been a
linchpin in the Connecticut economy for more than 200 years, and is now
threatened. A 2012 study by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, an
industry group based in Newtown, estimated 2,900 people directly
employed by firearms manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers, and
another 1,900 employees at suppliers. We will have to wait and see how
deeply that cluster of firms unravels.
“We feel that our industry as a whole will continue to be threatened
so long as it remains in a state where its elected leaders have no
regard for the rights of those who produce and manufacture its wealth,”
PTR said in its statement. “We are making a call to all involved in our
industry to leave this state, close your doors and show our politicians
the true consequences of their hasty and uninformed actions. We
encourage those in our industry to abandon this state as its leaders
have abandoned the proud heritage that forged our freedom.”
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The New York State Police are suspending the handgun permits of people in the state who are prescribed anti-anxiety medication, according toJim Tresmond of the Tresmond Law Firm in Hamburg, New York. Tresmond Law specializes in firearm litigation.
Since
1979, the United Nations has been encouraging nations to ratify an
international treaty that places the UN at the center of the governance
of outer space. The so- called “Moon Agreement” requires that all
activities on the moon and other celestial bodies be carried out in
accordance with international law, in particular the Charter of the
United Nations. The Agreement also provides that the exploration and use
of outer space “shall be the province of all mankind and shall be
carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries,
irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development.”
Recent actions taken by the administration of U.S. President Barack
Obama indicate that it has decided to support the UN in its quest to
govern outer space for the collective good of humanity. This explains
the recent statement of NASA Administrator Charles Bolden that “NASA is
not only a space exploration agency, but also an earth improvement
agency.” 
