Wyoming Gaining the Millions of Dollars Colorado Traded for Gun Control

Magpul Industries pulled up stakes and left Colorado after Democrat lawmakers instituted a ban on the sale of ammunition magazines holding more than 15 rounds.

The ban was passed in March 2013, and in January 2014, Magpul announced it would be moving production from Colorado to Wyoming. That meant an immediate annual revenue loss of $85 million for the state of Colorado–a loss that became Wyoming’s gain–and now, additional millions of dollars will be flooding into Wyoming as Magpul fulfills a new contract to make magazines for the United States Marine Corps.

According to the Gazette, Magpul took “100 employees” to Wyoming, in addition to the money. At the time that Colorado Democrats passed the gun control, Magpul “had about 200 workers in a 100,000-square-foot in Erie. The payroll has since grown to 380 and added a second shift in 185,000-square-foot facility in Cheyenne.”

Benefit: Wyoming.

Moreover, Magpul will now “be the exclusive provider for magazines Marines carry into combat.”

Colorado Senate President Kevin Grantham (R-Canon City) commented on Colorado’s multi-million dollar losses:

My take is there is no big surprise here. You tell a company they can’t sell a product in your state, when it’s a good product and a popular product. They move across the state line, they get a lot of support and they get a big contract. We lost not only the jobs they had when they were here, we lost the jobs they’ve grown into since and we’re losing all the jobs they’re going to grow into in future years with this contract.

Grantham added, “Once you have the Marine contract, I don’t see how the other branches won’t follow suit eventually. That’s a massive, massive contract just a short distance down the road. We lost that.”

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.