(GunReports.com) — An Associated Press story published this week describes how a tiny Idaho town is aggressively courting firearms and firearms-accessory companies to get them to relocate from states that are unfriendly to guns.
“We were in the middle of doing our marketing plan at the time and decided that firearms is the niche we would recommend,” said Gary White of Kennewick, Wash., a business marketing consultant who is helping develop Potlatch’s pitch to gun makers.
Potlatch, population 800, would transform from being a timber town into being a gun town. It would try to lure firearms and ammunition makers, and plans also called for hunting-themed housing and retail development.
The Idaho Department of Commerce is making firearms manufacturers a recruiting priority. The state recently passed a law that protects firearms makers from liability lawsuits or excessive regulation, White said.
Firearms are a $3.8 billion industry that employs 90,000 people in the United States. The industry includes household names like Remington, Winchester, Smith & Wesson and Colt, but also more than 1,000 smaller companies.
Many firearms companies have long been headquartered in states like Massachusetts and Connecticut, where the political climate has turned more hostile to firearms. No such fears in Idaho, a conservative state where firearms are a daily part of many people’s lives.
Read the whole story here.
