A Franklin County gun business is making an 11th-hour stand against a proposal that would ban the manufacture and sale of high-capacity firearm magazines. Attorney Brady Toensing, a lobbyist for Century International Arms, said the legislation would kill the company, which employs more than 100 people at its Georgia manufacturing plant.
“This law would put them out of business,” said Toensing, who also serves as vice chair of the Vermont Republican Party.
The company manufactures and sells handguns and semiautomatic rifles similar to the AK-47, as well as accessories for those guns. Since many of the AK-47-style guns come standard with 30-round magazines, a 10-round limit on magazines would require Century International Arms to make a major change to its operations.
Toensing said he wants to get the magazine capacity limit completely removed from the firearms bill under consideration in the House Friday. That bill would also mandate universal background checks for private sales, raise the legal age to purchase a gun to 21 and ban bump stocks for guns that allow semiautomatic weapons to fire at a faster rate. Toensing did not raise concerns about the other provisions in the bill.
“I’m concerned that it would ban high-capacity magazines,” Toensing said.
The House is expected to vote on the bill Friday. If the legislation gets preliminary approval, it would be subject to final approval next week.
After speaking with Toensing, Rep. Corey Parent (R-St. Albans) said Friday that he hopes to find a way to amend the bill so that it would not hurt Century International Arms’ Vermont operations.
Toensing said he hasn’t considered compromise language that might address his client’s concerns.
“I just got brought on last night, so I’m at the very early stages of even dealing with this issue. I’m trying to get up to speed,” he said.
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Yesssiree Bob, ya can’t be a real patriot unless ya can pop off 80 rounds at a shot . . ya never know when them thar liberal Canadians will invade us chanting their anti-American slogans like “Healthcare for all!” and “Man made Climate Change is real!”.
I’m sure the Tin Foil Hat Brigade will have a field day with this article.
There needs to be a total ban on assault rifles, bump-stocks, high capacity magazines and at least 3 day waiting period to purchase a firearm of any type.
Yeah, yeah, yeah . . .2nd Amendment, black UN helicopters, FEMA interment camps, Deep State . . .right.
I’m sure that Fox News /Alex Jones lobotomy you got was painless.
Magpul moved from Colorado over its 10 round limit.
“Attorney Brady Toensing, a lobbyist for Century International Arms, said the legislation WOULD KILL the company, which employs more than 100 people at its Georgia manufacturing plant.”
A poor choice of words there, Brady.
I am so sorry that a company that specializes in designing, manufacturing and selling items that help kill children may have to shut down. It makes me sad that their flow of blood money may be diminished. What a disaster. (Feel free to rate my sarcasm level on a scale of 0-10.)
I find that s.55 is a badly written piece of legislation that will not solve the problem of young men acting out in a violent fashion. The amendments added by the House do nothing to protect children or the general population from the bad actors in our society. These measures only restrict honest law abiding citizens. Criminals can and will ignore these laws. We as a society must find the root cause of the violence. If we do not solve this puzzle, no law prohibiting any device or tool will serve to eliminate future tragedy. I note that the Texas Bomber was a young man who shopped at Home Depot for his bomb making supplies.This bill if passed, will do nothing to restrict criminals such as the felon who recently opened fire on the streets of Burlington. This Felon was prohibited under current law from having a firearm. Criminals do not abide by firearms laws. I would say the first step might be taking these young men off of prescription medications that can cause erratic behavior. I ask the Senate to reject the amendments as written. This Voter asks the Governor to refuse to sign this bill. This company will be taking the jobs out of states. How sad. I would suggest moving to Maine.
It’s interesting.
The pro gun like/dislike positions seem to be half or double the number of the antigun positions. I wonder why that is? Maybe unlike Speaker Mitzi Johnson, a paper that tries to style itself as a liberal/progressive rag like Seven Days actually allows public hearing of the issues? Could it be that real Vermonters know that the firearms aren’t the problem, and personal insults don’t solve anything either, but maybe the real problem is people.
SHOCKING!
My train of thought runs…..why are the pro-gun defender of the second amendment ever as supportive of the first?
I am sorry for those who may loose their income (even if temporarily), however, that is not a good reason to keep doing the wrong thing. This bill is a long overdue step in the right direction for Vermont and progress should not be stopped because a company makes threats.
“Since many of the AK-47-style guns come standard with 30-round magazines, a 10-round limit on magazines would require Century International Arms to make a major change to its operations.”
Hyperbole much? Not from the “the gubment is coming to take your guns!” crowd.
G-U-N-S guns, guns, guns!!!!
It’s very sad that 100 people will lose their jobs over this law. Vermont is a great place to live if you can provide your own employment. Jobs lost are almost never regained, forcing many good people to leave the state. I can clearly remember how bad the layoff at IBM was in 2002. Most of those families had to move away and never recovered financially. This time, however, it is entirely the result of politics. These workers have the unfortunate bad luck to work in a job that is no longer acceptable to the VT Legislature. If this company were instead, selling weed, I’m sure the Legislature would applaud. Of course our representatives never objected to taking tax money from a gun business.
For the record, they are not “high-capacity” magazines. They are standard capacity, because that is how those particular firearms were originally designed. 20 round magazines are also quite common because that is the number of rounds in a standard box of ammunition. Many handguns hold 15 rounds because that is the number of 9mm rounds that will fit in an average sized hand. Arbitrarily limiting a handgun to 10 rounds would actually be a “restricted-capacity” magazine.