From a reader.

November 18th, 2019

Stag Arms LLC (“Stag” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce the appointment of a new President as well as its new location.

Stag’s Board of Directors today announced that Chad Larsen has been appointed Stag’s President effective immediately. The Company also announced that it will be relocating to Cheyenne, WY, by the end of the year. In June, the Company disclosed its decision to move from Stag’s former headquarters in New Britain, CT, and accordingly initiated a national search for a new location.

In making today’s announcement, Elie Azar, Founder and CEO of White Wolf Capital, LLC, which owns a controlling interest in Stag Arms, said: “We decided it was time to do a complete refresh of the Company. We needed to solve for three things: visionary customer-centric leadership, a business-friendly, pro-growth economic environment, and a cultural climate that reflects Stag’s brand image of independence and free spiritedness. I am pleased to report that we have found a solution that hits all these points.”

To find a new location for the Company, Stag’s Board of Directors conducted a rigorous process comparing dozens of potential sites against a stringent set of criteria. “Cheyenne came out on top on most of the individual criteria,” said Azar, “and considering our requirements as a whole, it was by far the superior site. Not only is Wyoming an incredibly hospitable place to do business, it is also a top destination for outdoor recreation, including hunting and shooting sports, which reflects its citizens’ unwavering support for the Second Amendment.”

Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, upon learning of Stag’s decision to relocate to his state, issued the following statement:

“I am pleased to welcome Stag Arms to Wyoming and to know that our state came out on top of a broad look at potential new homes for the sought-after company. We have a deep-seated commitment to the Second Amendment that I will continue to uphold. Ultimately, Stag Arms had to make a business decision and I believe this announcement is an affirmation that Wyoming is continuing to cultivate a culture that allows private enterprise to flourish. My administration will work collaboratively with the Wyoming Business Council and Cheyenne LEADS to ensure Stag’s move goes smoothly. I thank Stag’s Board of Directors and Chad Larsen for selecting Wyoming.”

Stag began working with Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development organization for Cheyenne and Laramie County, in June of this year after they reached out offering their assistance. LEADS assisted with site location, workforce evaluation and navigating the community.

Stag’s decision to relocate to Wyoming follows similar recent moves by other firearms companies, most notably Weatherby and Magpul. In addition to being firearm-friendly and outdoor-oriented, Wyoming has been very proactive in its efforts to attract high-skilled/high-paying manufacturing jobs to the state. Communities like Cheyenne have invested significantly in recent years in skilled-training capabilities.

Chad Larsen comes to Stag from Aero Precision, LLC, a leading manufacturer of AR-15 components located in Tacoma, WA, where he spent the last six years leading new product development. Azar noted, “Chad’s innovative genius with the Modern Sporting Rifle platform stems from his personal emersion in the shooting and hunting community. He knows what customers want—and what they don’t—because he is one of them.” Mr. Larsen is both an avid hunter and a registered 3-Gun, Multi-gun and USPSA competitor.

Mr. Larsen added, “I am both honored and humbled to have been selected to lead the charge to revitalize this iconic brand. The Stag team and I are totally committed to continuing Stag’s legacy of innovation—for example, we were the first AR platform to manufacture left-handed rifles—as well as continue our pledge of being 100% made in the United States.” Mr. Larsen succeeds Anthony Ash who was president of Stag since 2016.

Stag has begun the process of relocating all of its operations to Cheyenne and plans to be fully settled in its new accommodations in the upcoming months.

For questions or comments on this announcement, please email questions@stagarms.com.

No firearms manufacturer can stay in Connecticut and survive.  I’m surprised it took them this long to make the decision and engage the move.

Although I have to say that I’m disappointed they didn’t follow so many other firearms manufacturer’s moves and relocate South.

News from Connecticut.

Stag Arms, a New Britain manufacturer of automatic and semiautomatic AR-15 rifles, announced Friday it’s leaving the city for a yet-to-be-determined site that offers “significant support for the firearms industry.”

Good.  It couldn’t happen to a better state – or worse state – or whatever.  I hate that it took this long.  I hope Connecticut suffers financially from this at least a little bit.

WTNH.com:

14 months ago there were about 200.

“After the law was passed, unfortunately, it did nothing to make the state safer and in fact it hurt jobs in the state of Connecticut so unfortunately now we’re down to about 150 employees,” Malkowski said.

For Malkowski that was very hard because he says it was the first time he had to layoff employees in the eleven years he has run ‘Stag Arms.’

As for the years ahead … and if his company does see any growth again what will he do?

“Any future expansion we do for business we will look to other states,” he said, adding, “just because of how difficult it is to operate in the state of Connecticut but for right now we’re going to be operating here.”

He says that he has lost some regular customers, as several smaller gun shops have closed around the state and some out of state customers are unhappy that he continues to operate here.

He says, “they would rather see us in a different place.”

Maybe they will hang on until they are out of business entirely.  They could choose to move to a free state and repair their image, but apparently that’s too difficult for them.  I do understand the trauma of relocation and move of a business, including all of the employees.  But the alternative seems to be death of the company.

These are hard choices, and Stag Arms didn’t choose to be in this position.  Nonetheless, they are here and must act wisely.  Seldom do we get to choose our circumstances.  We only choose how to respond.  That’s what defines our character.

Ctpost.com:

When Stag Arms of New Britain wanted to produce a scaled-down version of a popular AR-15 rifle that was banned last April by Connecticut — part of a broader crackdown that was upheld Thursday by a U.S. District Court judge in Hartford — it ran the specifications by law enforcement.

“Right off the bat, they were helpful,” said Mark Malkowski, the company’s president and owner. “They did look at prototypes. They did this about three times. After that, they said it really wasn’t their responsibility to determine what was legal or not.”

The reluctance of the State Police to put its seal of approval on the Stag 22, a semi-automatic rifle that accepts lower-caliber bullets and fewer rounds of ammunition than its predecessor, is emblematic of an ongoing tension between the firearms industry and law enforcement over weapons development.

State police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance said his agency would hate to sign off on a gun, only to have one of its components render it illegal on a technicality.

“Are we going to be responsible for that?” said Vance, who became a household name for his many news conferences following the Dec. 14, 2012, massacre. “It’s their responsibility to make sure it conforms to the letter of the law.”

[ … ]

A majority of gun manufacturers are said by industry observers to be far along in the process of converting their traditional AR-15 rifles into .22-caliber models for sale in Connecticut, including Colt’s Manufacturing, the granddaddy of the state’s firearms industry. Multiple requests for comment were left with Colt, which was founded in 1836 in Hartford and employs about 600 people in the state.

In most modification cases, what is known as a center-fire mechanism is swapped out for a rim-fire mechanism. This inhibits the rifle’s ability to accept higher-caliber bullets like those used at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

[ … ]

Shooting purists are not as keen about .22-caliber rifles and the rimfire mechanism …

First of all, what an absurd, stolid article, e.g., low-caliber bullets, high caliber bullets, and so on.  Second, I’ll bet “shooting purists are not keen about .22-caliber rifles” in the AR-15 platform (if by that they mean .22LR).

There is a time and place for a .22LR long gun, for teaching youngsters to shoot, plinking, killing small game, etc.  I learned to shoot as a youngster with a .22LR long gun.  Those were good days.

But with Stag Arms trying to construct a long gun with these specifications in the AR platform, and with the future about this weapon known to everyone who understands these things (it won’t sell and it’s a waste of time and money to develop it), the question necessarily arises “Why is Stag Arms still in Connecticut?”  And “Why is Colt still in Connecticut?”  And as for that matter, “Why are Connecticut shooters still citizens of Connecticut?”

Come South, men.  Come South.