One Man's Crisis Is Another Man's Opportunity: Rick Perry Visits Colt Manufacturing In Connecticut

This spring, the idiot mainstream press breathlessly reported and applauded as the Connecticut legislature passed even more restrictions on gun ownership in the wake of the Newtown tragedy. Oh, the humanity, oh how noble a legislature, this we say this will fix things, by golly!

What was not well-reported were the some 400 employees of Colt who appeared at the state capitol to ask for cooler heads to prevail, all to no avail.

This week, Rick Perry came to visit, to invite Colt to relocate to Texas, a state that will never ever ever piss on them like Connecticut did.

The president of West Hartford-based Colt Manufacturing said Friday he will be pleased to host a visit by Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, a state he called a loyal supporter of the gun maker.

Perry is traveling to Connecticut on Sunday for a Northeast job-poaching tour that will also take him to New York.

A number of gun makers in Connecticut have said they are looking into leaving after the state passed some of the toughest gun laws in the country, a response to last year's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown in which 20 children and six educators were gunned down.

Colt president Dennis Veilleux said he welcomes Perry's visit Monday morning. 

He was careful to speak in code:

"While we have been proud to call Connecticut home for 175 years, as we look to future growth we have a responsibility to consider all options that ensure we remain competitive and meet the needs and expectations of our customers," Veilleux said.

The translation being: 'We're outta here.'

The plant leaves. The workers leave, highly trained people whose families have worked for the firm for decades and more. Their families leave, and their children never come back. The suppliers to Colt also leave, and their workers and families. The costs of maintaining roads and running schools don't go down, but the tax revenue certainly does.

And as for the firms recruited to take Colt's place? Question #1 is: 'If you will do this to Colt, what will you do to us? Besides, we've been talking to Texas, and Alabama, and Tennessee...They've got better weather, better food, lower taxes, and fewer Democrats.'

OS believes in our Federal system, with most power flowing to the states and the people. It allows a Texas to profit from the idiocy of Connecticut, and serves thereby to restrain their folly. The best reforms arrive dressed as competition.