US oldest gunmaker leaves village after 200 years to find 'more supportive' area

17 February 2024 , 08:00

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Remington Arms has been making guns in the area since it was first founded (Image: AP)

Residents of a village in New York’s Mohawk Valley are preparing to bid farewell to the massive firearms factory that has employed generations of workers there.

Ever since Eliphalet Remington forged his first rifle barrel nearby in 1816 Ilion has been a gun making town, but now the nation’s oldest gun-maker has announced plans to close the factory in the company’s original home early next month.

Gun making was to Ilion what car manufacture was to Detroit but now the blue-collar village of 7,600 people face the loss of jobs and the prospect of an empty, sprawling factory in the middle of their community.

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Jim Conover said: “When Remington leaves, it’s not going to be like a facility leaving, it’s going to be like part of your family has moved off.” Jim started at Remington in 1964 packing guns and retired 40 years later as a production manager.

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Remington is central to life in Ilon, Jim’s father and sons both worked at the plant. Furnace operator and technician Frank “Rusty” Brown still clocked in there this year with family members, he said: “My mom worked there. My dad worked there. My wife works there with me now.

“My daughter works there with me now. My second daughter works there with me now. And my son-in-law works there,” said Brown, president of the United Mine Workers of America Local 717. “So it’s a double-hit for me and my wife: two of us out of a job.”

A photo of Ilion, NY, and the Mohawk Valley from above showing the factory at top right (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The current owners of Remington Firearms, RemArms, blamed “production inefficiencies” for the plant closure in a Nov. 30 letter to union officials. The cost of maintaining the 1 million square-foot factory, which dates back to World War I was also too high, they said.

The company was also hit by a lawsuit after the Sandy Hook school shootings and new owners took over the Ilion plant following bankruptcy filings. The workforce at the plant has dwindled from about 1,300 workers there more than a decade ago to around 300 today.

RemArms added that Georgia offered an environment that better “supports and welcomes the firearms industry.” CEO Ken D’Arcy also said in a news release that the industry was concerned about the “legislative environment” in New York.

A shotgun made by Remington Arms, gifted by the company to the town, hangs on the wall of Ilion's municipal building (AP)

In its letter to the union RemArms said it expected to end facility operations around March 4 - the company announced it was moving to LaGrange, Georgia in 2021 to open a factory and research division there.

In July 2020 545 workers at the Ilion plant were laid off and after a turbulent period of financial troubled the plant closed and reopened in the spring of 2021, meaning if RemArms sticks to its March closure timetable, the restart in Ilion will have lasted just under three years.

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