Alphecca

Illinois Tough Place to Make Guns

I somehow missed this Peoria Journal Star piece from last Sunday about "Gun Valley":

Four Illinois firearm manufacturers are locked in a tug-of-war with the state as ever-increasing gun legislation comes in from Springfield, but the competing companies have successfully operated within 15 miles of each other for years in an area dubbed "the Gun Valley."

In a nondescript building on Main Street in the Henry County town of Geneseo is the nerve center of one of the nation's largest, oldest and most recognized names in the shooting business.

Springfield Armory Inc. has its headquarters in the 50,000-square-foot building, but from the outside, there's no hint that thousands of handguns and rifles are being produced behind the secure walls.

Unlike most businesses along the strip advertising to passers-by with eye-catching signs, Springfield keeps a low profile because its product line is unlike most businesses.

Once through the security doors, the inner workings look like most corporations. People in cubicles answer phones and field questions from customers and buzz back and forth between copiers and fax machines.

The walls are decorated with poster-sized covers of national gun magazines the company has been featured in over the years. Just past this room, however, is the heart of the company that employs nearly 200 people.

The first stop on a rarely-granted tour is the custom gun shop where 3,000 handguns each year are hand fitted and assembled for professional competitive shooters, FBI agents and collectors. The labor-intensive process is separate from the rest of the handgun production and includes hand-filing thousands of little checkers into the pistol grip.

There's also plenty (unfortunately) of blather from the anti-gun crowd in the article but that doesn't detract too much from the main idea of the story; the hurdles these companies must jump to stay in business.