A gleeful post from National Review's Charles C.W. Cooke:
Magpul, the Colorado-based firearms manufacturer, will be leaving the state. A press release issued today made it clear that the decision was the direct result of the gun control laws passed in 2013:Meanwhile, there's this on the Facebook page of the Wyoming Highway Patrol, in response to another headline-grabbing Colorado law:
The company is relocating manufacturing, distribution and shipping operations to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Magpul is leasing a 58,000 square foot manufacturing and distribution facility during the construction of a 100,000 square foot build-to-suit facility in the Cheyenne Business Parkway. The Wyoming relocation is being completed with support from Governor Matt Mead, the Wyoming Business Council and Cheyenne LEADS....
The company began a nationwide search for a new base of operations after legislation was enacted in Colorado that dramatically limits the sale of firearms accessories....
"Moving operations to states that support our culture of individual liberties and personal responsibility is important," says Richard Fitzpatrick, Chief Executive Officer for Magpul Industries....
I learned about this via Michelle Malkin's Twitchy, where the readers are cheering Wyoming on, and seeing social decadence in Colorado. (Gosh, I thought all those wingers were in favor of person freedom and libertarianism and all that. Guess not.)
DO NOT BRING YOUR COLORADO PURCHASED MARIJUANA INTO WYOMING
Cheyenne -- The new law that went into effect January 1st in the State of Colorado making possession of marijuana legal to sell and possess in that State has generated many questions to our office from the media.
... The bottom line, any amount of marijuana in either dried or in plant form in the State of Wyoming is illegal to possess.
Individuals who have in their possession 3 ounces or less may be charged with a misdemeanor violation that carries a penalty of imprisonment for not more than 12 months, a fine of not more than $1,000.00 or a combination of both.
If found with an amount of marijuana over 3 ounces an individual will be charged with a felony which can result in imprisonment for not more than 5 years and/or a fine of not more than $10,000.00.
... Possession of drug paraphernalia is also a violation in the State of Wyoming....
Earlier today, at The American Prospect, Paul Waldman wrote this:
... One trend I do think will shape people's lives this year and in years to come is the increasing divergence between the places where lots of Democrats live and the places where lots of Republicans live. Yes, it sounds trite and overdone to talk about Two Americas, but it is true, and it's becoming more true all the time. And one question I'm curious about is whether we'll see an increase in people picking up and moving to places where public policy either accords better with their values or offers them important benefits they need to live their lives (or both).Are people really going to move from state to state in large numbers in pursuit of laws that are more to their liking? I have my doubts.
... In Colorado you can walk down to a store on the corner and buy cannabis, and you'll be able to do the same in Washington in a few months. There are new restrictions on guns in blue states, and new laws making guns more ubiquitous in red states. There are also new laws in conservative states aimed at making abortions all but impossible for women to get, and making it as hard as possible for certain kinds of people to vote. And in one of the most critical changes, as of yesterday millions of Americans are getting health coverage through Medicaid -- if they live in the right place.
... there are more reasons than ever for people to get up and move to the states where the political leadership is working to make it the kind of place where people like them would want to live. The more we talk about it, the more conscious people become of it, and the closer a conservative in Maryland or a liberal in Mississippi gets to saying, "That's it -- I'm finally getting the hell out of here."
... if the number of people moving not just for a new job but for ideological reasons increases, then that will feed a cycle in which more states become even more ideologically homogenized, which leads to public policy even more ideologically one-sided....
But Wyoming and Colorado do seem to moving in opposite directions: you take the guns, we'll take the weed. I think that sort of polarization will increase, even if the citizens just shrug and accept it.
We've been in TX for 25 years for husband's job. We are leaving for the northeast as soon as he's eligible for retirement in a few months. (May have to stay till Nov. to cast votes for Wendy Davis!!)
ReplyDeleteI think Coloradans are thinking "we'll take the weed, everyone else can take whatever they want! Screw the guns!"
ReplyDeleteDespite massive hand wringings of ohmygoodness howwillweregulatethis by certain factions everything seems to be going ahead very peacefully*.
*wink.
Steve, I think your theory only works when it works - as is currently, and only currently the case with Colorado and Wyoming.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, the influx of retirees from the northeast is gradually pushing Florida into blue-ish territory. Ditto California, which 60 years ago was Nixon Country, filled with "little old ladies in tennis shoes" who always voted Republican. Yes, there's still a bunch of 'em in Orange County, but they must feel like a family of mice trapped in a cage with a dozen testosterone-crazed tomcats
People go where the jobs are. The good jobs go to people who, through luck, intelligence, family fortune or hard work (or some combination thereof) have a college education. Those tend to be more blue. That new gun factory in Wyoming is going to need CAD pistol designers, graphic designers for the packaging, mechanical engineers, marketing mavens. And before you know it, Wyoming gets hoist by its own petard and starts selling marijuana in abortion clinics and arresting people for walking around with firearms.
Well, I exaggerate a bit, but you get my drift.
Very Crankily Yours,
The New York Crank
In these economic conditions, only people who can afford to move, will move if they want to. Everyone else is stuck, until there are a hell of a lot more jobs.
ReplyDeleteOur "Cold Civil War" is not abating, it's intensifying.
How long before Conservatives in the Red States with virtually no gun laws, decide they want an actual shooting war with the Blue States?
We need to start thinking of shutting down the military bases that we have in the South - which were a form of economic pork over the last 100+ years, to get some cooperation from, frankly, back then, Southern Democratic members of Congress - and moving them up North.
But if that starts to look like it's happening, that, imo, may be the Fort Sumter move.
The South may feel threatened enough to start a shooting war.
Fine fucking mess we've gotten ourselves in, huh?!?!?!?!?!
Should have hung the Secesh traitors after The Civil War, the property of the leaders, seized, their rights, taken away from them - leaving behind the property rights of the regular soldiers. With rights returned after a loyalty oath was administered, and a decade had passed.
Lincoln was too kind, and afraid of creating martyrs to the cause.
But the Secesh traitors still became martyrs to the cause, because of the way the pre-war "Culture of Victimhood" down there was allowed to continue.
After WWII, both Germany's banned any form of Nazism.
Here, after The Civil War, we allowed the Secesh traitors to continue to be glorified in books, movies, and music.
And we wonder why we're still in a mess, almost 150 years after "The Night They Burned Old Dixie Down?"
There have been dry states and barriers to importation of stuff, from cigarettes to liquor, for a long time. This only holds for a while in the case of things which are hard to manufacture and easy to interdict. I doubt very much that Wyoming's home grown potheads will have trouble continuing to supply their habit. And to the extent that Wyoming has an important tourist economy Im' wondering how enforceable this is going to be. A few high profile busts of hollyweird types and its all over for Wyoming's tourist economy. I'm sure there are lots of Wyoming natives who would like to recapture the land and the water from outsiders, but equally Wyoming businesses will not be happy losing the trade.
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of moving to certain states--I have certainly become very loath to consider moving to any Red State--I didn't define them that way when I was younger. And I certainly wouldn't want my daughters moving to any of them. The colleges or the work opportunities might be good, temporarily, but I'd rather have them safe in a blue state than risking their lives under Republican rule.
I have both smoked pot and owned firearms (a good deer rifle and revolver is all a real man needs) since nineteen sixty-five, I don't drive a jacked-up de-engineered suburban assault vehicle with tires the size of Volkswagons and a hood ornament the perfect rendition of the human female reproductive system and I don't vote Republican. For recreation I beat the shit out of Retards and pot smoking Tea Baggers and hope one pulls a gun on me - I didn't grow up on a cattle ranch practicing a quick draw and hunting game, serve a Tour of Duty in Viet Nam and spend yhr Raygun years on the High Cascade in a coverted school bus with guns and dogs (wolf shepard hybreds) and goats and children and a three year supply of dried goods and ammunition for nothing. I am the Retards biggest nightmare. They
ReplyDeleteFear me.
People move primarily for jobs and for family, and as long as income for most folks remains static or falling, that will still be the case.
ReplyDeleteSo I suspect the culture wars will only grow more bitter.
We're stuck in Alabama until my spouse can retire, and then we're planning to move to Florida. It will be so nice to feel like my vote matters in a Presidential election.
ReplyDeleteThe ideological split isn't just between states; it's within them. Jefferson County, in which I reside, went completely blue in the last election. The state news website surveyed readers a couple of days ago and found that 71% approve the legalization of marijuana.
If there's a shooting war, it may take place inside some states too.