Bearing Arms – by Bob OwensAccording to family lore, three Owens brothers from Wales left their home country, spent a brief amount of time in Ireland, and then immigrated to the United States in the 1850s, landing in Philadelphia. At least one of the three brothers moved to North Carolina, and when the War of Northern Aggression broke out, my ancestors—like so many families—fought wearing both the blue and the grey.
During that horrible conflict, the Confederate States of America were arguably better led and better fighters, killing roughly 105,000 more Union soldiers and generating 138,000 more casualties.
So why did they lose?
A historical note from the National Park Service explains that it was largely a matter of demographics, logistics, and of course, industrial might.
In 1860, the South was still predominantly agricultural, highly dependent upon the sale of staples to a world market. By 1815, cotton was the most valuable export in the United States; by 1840, it was worth more than all other exports combined. But while the southern states produced two-thirds of the world’s supply of cotton, the South had little manufacturing capability, about 29 percent of the railroad tracks, and only 13 percent of the nation’s banks. The South did experiment with using slave labor in manufacturing, but for the most part it was well satisfied with its agricultural economy.
The North, by contrast, was well on its way toward a commercial and manufacturing economy, which would have a direct impact on its war making ability. By 1860, 90 percent of the nation’s manufacturing output came from northern states. The North produced 17 times more cotton and woolen textiles than the South, 30 times more leather goods, 20 times more pig iron, and 32 times more firearms. The North produced 3,200 firearms to every 100 produced in the South…
Now, if we flash forward to 2014, we find that the small arms manufacturing capability that was responsible for helping the Union win the war is now abandoning the northeast andfleeing to the traditional southern states.
PTR Industries Inc is among a wave of firearms makers moving or expanding away from the industry’s traditional base in the U.S. Northeast to the more gun-friendly South.
Gun sales in the United States have grown steadily over the past 30 years and spiked last year after the Newtown shootings because of fear of coming restrictions, analysts said.
“Everybody who is looking to expand in new factory space is looking outside the Northeast. The reasons are taxes, labor and laws,” said Brian Ruttenbur, an analyst with CRT Capital Group.
A maker of expensive target rifles, PTR announced an $8 million investment in South Carolina, and moved about 45 jobs to a factory near Myrtle Beach in January.
PTR’s limited edition commemorative rifle, which sells for $1,200, is stamped with the South Carolina logo and the words: “We the people shall not be infringed.” Alabama announced in February that Remington Outdoor Co Inc was moving some production lines from Ilion, New York, where it has been based since 1816, to Huntsville, Alabama, with a $110 million investment that promises to bring 2,000 jobs to the Southern state.
Connecticut-based Sturm Ruger & Co Inc is building a 220,000-square-foot facility in North Carolina, the company’s first major expansion in more than 25 years, it said. Colt’s Manufacturing Co, also based in Connecticut, moved its Colt Competition rifle manufacturer to Texas last year. Beretta USA, based for decades in Accokeek, Maryland, is building a $45 million firearms research and manufacturing plant in Gallatin, Tennessee, after Maryland banned sales of specific types of assault weapons last year.
Courted by several states, Beretta made a list of “traditional true blood Second Amendment states” for consideration, general counsel and vice-general manager Jeff Reh told The Sportsman Channel.
Gun company relocation and expansion to better locations are in protest against new gun control laws, firearm industry analyst Rommel Dionisio of Wedbush Securities told Reuters.
The gun makers’ aging northeastern factories are also a factor, according to Ruttenbur.
The 150-year-old gun industry started in the Northeast as companies such as Smith and Wesson Holding Corp, Remington Arms Co Inc and Colt took advantage of the availability of cheap steel.
Attitudes toward gun ownership are now polarized and geographically separated, said Ruttenbur.
“The demand for guns is not in the Northeast. It’s not on the coasts. Gun ownership is dramatically going higher in the heartland,” he said.
Indeed. and therein lies the problem for those who would remake this nation against the will of the citizenry.
In addition to the shift in manufacturing capability, the ownership of militarily significant small arms is greatly curtained in many of the former states of the Union. California, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York have greatly restricted the arms and magazines their citizens are allowed to legally own, particularly those semi-automatic firearms of conventional military utility and their standard capacity magazines.
As these states are restricting the rights of their citizens to own firearms, firearms are now becoming more commonly owned in the rest of the nation. The AR-15 carbine and its variants are by far the most popular rifles sold in the United States in recent years, and it is typically purchased along with multiple standard-capacity magazines of 20-30 rounds and hundreds to thousands of rounds of ammunition per purchaser.
The shift of the firearms manufacturing base from the anti-gun northeast to the more liberty-minded parts of the Republic has not been lost on many in the firearms community, who tend to be better educated in matters of history than the current political class. They know that historically speaking , no nation stays intact with the same government for very long. Our present government operating under this Constitution is very old when compared to those around the world, and is by a wide degree, the longest-lasting single document constitutional text (Norway’s, written in 1814, comes in second). In comparison, our Revolutionary War ally, France has been through a dizzying number of constitutions, only stabilizing (for now, at least) in 1958. As a matter of fact,most of the world’s constitutions were written in the 20th and 21st centuries.
While most Americans take great pride in our nation’s heritage and its Founding documents, there are a number of radicals in positions of power that would like to see our Constitution abandoned, the Second Amendment destroyed, and a constitution that gives more power to the government (at the expense of individual liberty and responsibility) brought about in its place.
Perhaps one day soon they will make their push to remake our Republic.
It’s too bad that they haven’t learned from history.
Those who have the arms typically prevail over those who do not.
http://bearingarms.com/firearms-producers-move-south-northern-states-infringe-upon-liberty/
““The demand for guns is not in the Northeast. It’s not on the coasts. Gun ownership is dramatically going higher in the heartland,” he said.”
I just hope that won’t be used against us because if they block the coasts, they can isolate and surround us from both sides, which is not good.
I agree 100%, it won’t be good. But as long as my fellow Patriots from the State of Louisiana and I have anything to say/do about it,(and we damn sure do,) the port of New Orleans, the oldest port and one of the oldest cities in the US,will stay open & operating. The last time some crap like this happened, Gen. Andrew Jackson and a handful of proper Colonial soldiers, supplemented with Pirates, Colored Freedmen, French fur trappers & mountain men, ROUTED the British at the Battle of New Orleans. Hardly 6 miles outside the French Quarter, the battlefield still stands today. Hardly larger than a football field,{American, of course}the earthworks they used for cover were rebuilt in the 1930’s. 5-6 ft tall, with the front sloping down into the natural ditch draining the field, the British forgot to bring the crude ladders they made to climb the wall.
Not long into the battle, an American rifleman shot the British Commander off of his horse, his Jr Officers soon followed. We erased the British’s Royal Scotsmen Regiment, along with their heroic charge, from the face of this Earth. Only a few British ever broke our line, down on the end by our few artillery pieces but with their reinforcements already dead, they were soon repelled.
Leaderless, the invading force quickly fell into panic and ran back into the south La swamp from where they had come only earlier that morning. I can’t recall if our forces perused. Probably not,, the swamp and American fighting forces were old allies from our Revolution only a generation earlier, as we still are today, so I’m certain that the swamps took the last lives to be taken in the Battle of New Orleans. Colonial forces suffered only a handful of dead or wounded. Less than 30, if memory serves.
In the French Quarter still today stands a monument that commemorates the battle. A horse, on which Gen. Jackson rides eternally, through this place that proudly shares his name. Jackson Square.
Thus ended our 2nd Revolution, otherwise known as the War of 1812, also the year that Louisiana and 4-5 other Territories became States themselves, joining the Republic. Others may forget our history, certainly not those of us descended from the French trappers at the battle, and those French from Nova Scotia who’s land was stolen by the British. Those not murdered, escaped and made their way as far south as possible to New Orleans and later came to be known as,, Cajuns.
Once we block the land border,, they’ll try,,, other routs. We’ll be there waiting for them. The ones our gators don’t eat, we’ll take care of. They’ll be erased from ever having been, nothing will remain. The swamp is such a good deterrent that illegals would much rather die in the desert, rather than face our old ally from earlier wars. Hundreds of ways in,, just as many ways to die. Sorry ’bout the history lesson. I just wanted to demonstrate what a few have done in the past down here for the cause of Human Liberty, and will do so again if necessary. We’ll keep the port of NO open & running, whatever it takes. We’ve always been the Republic’s ”back door”, and we’re fully aware of that and are up to the task again, & are already armed to the teeth. We’ve been ready since the 60’s, and are more so at this time. We’ve got your back and if you ever need a place to stay low, we’ll take all of you in. You’re family, never forget that.
Politically, the North controls the gov. and continues to impose its
agenda on the rest of the country but when all is said and done, the South is going to rise again.
🙂 🙂 🙂
You better believe that. Last go-round, no one was fighting for ”Slavery”, like the media & Hollywierd wants everyone to believe. This time, we damn sure are fighting about Slavery. We’re fighting so that we won’t live as Slaves to an Authoritarian Fed gov. And this time, we won’t let Gen. Lee blow it in a little town in Pennsylvania over shoes like he did the last time. We’ve read Sun Tzu’s ”Art of War” since then. Follow Sun Tzu and you win. Follow him not,, you die. Lee violated the #1 rule. You NEVER attack a fortified enemy position. NEVER. Especially uphill, committing reserve troops to prevent defeat. Only use reserves to exploit a victory.
Whats up w/ the fruitcake pic??