GunsGun manufacturer to leave Colorado after governor signs gun bill

Magpul Industries is seeking to move operations from Colorado // Source: blogspot.com

Colorado governor John Hickenlooper on Wednesday signed a state gun control bill which will expand background checks and limit ammunition magazine capacity. The measure is notable because Colorado has been considered  a firearm-friendly state.

The governor said he found widespread support among state residents for broadening background checks. NBC News notes that he also rejected the charge that politicians from outside the state pressured him and other state leaders to pass the bill.

“This didn’t come from the White House,” Hickenlooper said.

The signing of the bill  came just one day after Tom Clements, the head of Colorado’s Department of Corrections, was shot and killed after answering the front door at his home.

Republicans lawmakers argued that the measure would not prevent future mass killings. And the Denver Post reports that some Colorado sheriffs have said that they would not enforce the new law in their districtst.

“Why put the effort into enforcing a law that is unenforceable?” Weld County Sheriff John Cooke told the Colorado paper on Monday. “With all of the other crimes that are going on, I don’t have the manpower, the resources or the desire to enforce laws like that.”

Several days before the bill was placed on Hickenlooper’s desk for his signature, the Colorado-based ammunition magazine company Magpul Industries announced that it would pack up and move its operations to another state if the bill became law.

According to Doug Smith, Magpul chief operating officer, the bill signed by Hickenlooper could seriously impact the company’s business.

Richard Fitzpatrick, the founder and president of the company, told the Star Tribune that “The people who wrote the bill didn’t even know we existed in the state.”

The company has since launched an online campaign, called “Boulder Adrift,” to goal of which is to “bring much needed supplies to freedom-loving residents trapped inside occupied territory” by allowing residents in the state to specially purchase limited quantities of magazines from the company’s Web site.

Verified residents will be able  to purchase up to ten standard capacity AR/M4 magazines directly from the company, and their purchases will receive $5 off shipping. 

Laura Chapin, a spokeswoman for a coalition of groups backing the gun control bill, says Magpul is too busy worrying about  political beliefs.

“This kind of grandstanding demonstrates that Magpul is making political decisions, not business ones,” Chapin told the Post. “Their manufacturing needs were protected in the original version of the bill, then further expanded in committee at the behest of Magpul’s own lobbyists.”