This letter would seem to indicate that Beretta considered relocated to West Virginia, having been wooed there by politicians no doubt looking to bring jobs. But Beretta indicates they were “looking first and foremost for a widespread and stable place of political support in any potential location,” and Joe Manchin’s recent actions on gun control were enough to give them the heebee jeebees. It’s not like West Virginia needs jobs or anything. Working class people struggling for good manufacturing jobs ought to take note of where Democratic priorities lie.
***Please note, I’m throwing numbers around very loosely for generalized ideas of how much firearm owners spend.***
if your undies get bunched up by theoretical rough numbers, please close your eyes, and scroll down.
West Virginia’s gun economy is gigantic for the size of its population. I think there are 1.8 million people in the state, and we are at ?9%? Unemployment, but gun-related sales are still high.
I don’t know what every state’s permit costs are (Several states do not require permit costs, no?), but calculating that number according to WV’s $115, not including the cost of the class required beforehand… that is $1,277,996,495 in processing and application fees. Even a quarter of a 1.27 billion dollars is a lot of cash. Reapplication fees in WV are every five years, too.
Lets calculate if every CCW’er was required to take a(n estimated) $50 class to become “qualifiedâ€: = $555,650,650 Stimulating economy, no?
5% of WV’s population is 92,750. on that basis, $= 10,666,250 over five years for application and processing, then (estimating $50) = $4,637,500 for our required class.
Hunting and game fees bring a ton of money to the state also.
http://www.wvdnr.gov/hunting/huntlicense.shtm
Oh, here’s 2010 data for how many deer were harvested – http://www.wvdnr.gov/2011news/11news004.shtm
Firearms are a shit ton of money to the economy. Hypothetically, if 105,000 deer were shot with a .223/.556 round at a hypothetical cost of $0.25 a piece, that is still TWENTY SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS in ammo alone.
Manchin made a small speech at the Alkahn/Paxar plant in Lewis county when it closed shop and moved to Honduras in 2005. That was a loss of 207 jobs. He also came to the town when a glass factory went under in the same town, and 170 jobs were cut.
Oh wait, we need quality jobs in WV? Nahhhhh!
Joe Manchin screwed the pooch with scaring Beretta away.
And a good quality specialized hunting round in .223/5.56 costs more than $0.25. More like $0.75 or a buck each — $15-20 for a box of 20. (I can’t find FMJ range rounds for a quarter apiece.)
And that’s not counting folks who use a bigger caliber. Soft-point .308s approach $1.50 or $2 per round around here — $30-40 for 20. .30-06 SPRG and Win 30-30 are similar, and .300 Win Mag is even more.
So I’d say that $26,000 in ammo alone for 105,000 deer taken is an extremely low-ball estimate. The actual number is closer to the annual compensation — with benefits — for the gov’t official in charge of issuing hunting permits. And again, that’s just the ammo. :)
Oh, I totally know I lowballed, but eh. I’d rather lowball than have something that could even sound slightly absurd. (Like “50,000 people were /murdered/ with guns since Sandy hook.”, etc etc etc.)
You “low ball estimate” is at lest 5X too high and you made no mention of the 2.5 million violent crimes prevented by a person with a gun every year.
US Death causes:
http://concealednation.org/2014/05/u-s-gun-usage-and-death-statistics/
Justifable Homicide by Weapon (FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, 2012)
http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=200705&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1405729671
http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=200706&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1405729721
http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=200709&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1405731670
I’m having a difficult time finding what part of my economics section your response applies to.
I didn’t have coffee this morning, or maybe I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
Notice that they mentioned Joe Manchin by name. Once someone is in the Senate, most will stay for life. People will keep voting for them. Hard to beat for reelection. This is both parties.
Except Manchin is remarkably likely to lose. And a lot of it is because of gun control.
He is one of the several tossed into the ‘likely to lose’ category this fall.
Can anyone comment on how much press this is getting in WV?
This letter from Beretta is “old.” Last year on June 28th the WV Gazette, WV metro news, Charleston Daily Mail made note of it. June 29th, the Herald Dispatch made an article from it.
WVVA TV posted a tv clip about it back then also (They actually did more than one story: http://www.wvva.com/search?vendor=ez&qu=beretta ), as well as an update today. They serve the southernmost area of the state, and part of VA. WOWK TV had an article March 13, 2013 talking about politicians wining and dining Beretta.
WCHS, Exponent Telegram, and TV also reprinted the AP story about Beretta leaving MD, but I couldn’t open up the story.
Comments viewable: http://wvmetronews.com/2013/07/01/manchin-takes-no-blame-for-beretta-declining-expansion-to-west-virginia/
Here’s a news article that cannot be seen, but comments are: http://theintermountain.com/page/content.comment/id/563439/Reader-taking-Manchin-to-task.html?nav=5011
Does that help?
Yep. Thanks.
Yeah, the letter is old. It made its way back into the news cycle because of Beretta’s recent decision to move to TN.
Of course, at least West Virginia got a letter. I doubt Pennsylvania got anything of the sort.
Thanks, Sen. Toomey.
Sigh.
So, I just want to say that I have the pleasure of knowing the signatory to that letter and he understands the issues and is as awesome as he sounds. This is not simple public relations. Beretta does not move unless forced to do so.
Unfortunately our governor just forced him and hundreds of jobs from our state (and my neck of the woods). I have friends who are going to suffer from this.
Remember the name: Martin O’Malley.
For the sake of discussion, let’s say the antis take a whoopin’ in November on election day.
If that happens (big if, obviously), do you think we’ll see much effort from the Manchin types in Congress to get back in our good graces before they face re-election? Not with a Hagan-style “Hunters & Sportsmen” bill, but national reciprocity or something else significant?
I was a kid at the time, but isn’t that basically what happened with the attempted 1996 repeal of the AWB? Meaning it was, at least in part, a reaction to getting their clocks cleaned at the polls?