Beretta Tells Maryland It Will Move Operation If Gun Law is Enacted

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
February 25, 2013


Beretta USA, the domestic division of the Italian firearms manufacturer, recently informed Maryland it will move operations out of the state if a law aimed at the Second Amendment is enacted. “Enact such measures at your own risk,” the company told lawmakers, according to Bizpac Review.

Beretta’s ARX-160, developed for the Italian armed forces and now in commercial prototype, would be outlawed by the pending legislation. Photo: Defense Review.

Jeff Reh, a member of the Board of Directors for Beretta U.S.A. Corp., told lawmakers the company opposes Maryland Senate bill 281, otherwise known as the Firearm Safety Act of 2013.

The law proposes “altering” how the Second Amendment is interpreted in the state and would outlaw so-called assault weapons and prohibit “a person from transporting an assault weapon into the State or possessing, selling, offering to sell, transferring, purchasing, or receiving an assault weapon.” Under the law, “certain individuals” would be ordered “to surrender firearms… under certain circumstances.” In addition, the law would force handgun owners to obtain a “handgun qualification license” from the Secretary of State Police.

Beretta’s ARX-160, developed for the Italian armed forces as part of the Soldato Futuro (Future Soldier) program and now in commercial prototype, would be outlawed by the pending legislation.

In a letter to lawmakers, Beretta’s Jeff Reh said legislation proposed by Gov. Martin O’Malley will “treat as dangerous millions of people who lawfully and safely own semi-automatic rifles and the tens of millions of people who lawfully and safely own magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. It tells those people that you can protect your life, your family or your business, even against multiple assailants, as long as you can get do so in 10 rounds or less. It tells all of these people that in Maryland there is a limit on the extent to which you can exercise your 2nd Amendment rights, a limit that does not apply, by the way, to police officers who buy these products for the same protective reasons that are desired by the general public.”

The Washington Post reports politicians in Maryland fear the company will take their business elsewhere. “I’m concerned. I think they’re going to move,” said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., a Democrat. “They sell guns across the world and in every state in the union — to places a lot more friendly to the company than this state.”

On Saturday, we covered a growing number of firearm companies announcing they will no longer sell products to states, counties and municipalities engaged in subversion against the Constitution.

“There are some states, counties, cities, and municipalities in our great nation that fail to allow their citizens to fully exercise their right to keep and bear arms with restrictions such as magazine capacity or types of firearms that are widely available to citizens of other states, counties, cities, and municipalities,” The Police Loophole reported. “However, these government entities do not place these restrictions upon their own employees, such as police officers.”