Gun plant sheds 126

Albany

Remington Arms Co. laid off 126 people at its Ilion factory in Herkimer County on Tuesday.

In August, 105 workers lost their jobs.

A Remington spokesman did not immediately return phone and email requests for comment. Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney, whose district includes Ilion, said she was told that the layoffs are the result of a downturn in the market and the completion of a recall of a line of rifles.

"I feel really sad for the employees and the 126 families (who) have a huge impact on our economy," Tenney said. "My heart goes out to them. It's been a very, very rough ride this year for Remington."

In May, the company said it would consolidate some operations at its Alabama factory. Among the manufacturing lines moved were the Bushmaster and R1 lines. The Ilion jobs would not have gone to Alabama, Tenney said.

The company employed about 1,200 workers in Ilion at the time. Tenney said the company has about 1,000 employees left.

The fate of Remington's operations in New York has been questioned since the passage of the SAFE Act in early 2013. SAFE Act opponents have said the laws are the reason Remington and others gun makers have considered moving operations elsewhere. In August 2013, Kahr Firearms Group moved its corporate offices from Rockland County to Pennsylvania, citing, in part, the SAFE Act. In the fall of 2013, American Tactical Imports, a firearm and ammunition manufacturing and import company based in Rochester, left for South Carolina. In December 2013, AR15.com left the Finger Lakes for Texas, citing the SAFE Act.

"When you're manufacturing guns in a state that the most powerful person in the state has indicated that they don't like what you manufacture (it doesn't help)," Tenney said Tuesday about the Bushmaster line of rifles, some of which are illegal under the SAFE Act because they have features that classify them as assault weapons. "It doesn't help that there's an unfriendly attitude by elected officials not us up here about the products they produce."

mhamilton@timesunion.com 518-454-5449 @matt_hamilton10

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Gun plant sheds 126