The current iteration of Remington Arms will close its Mohawk Valley location.
By means ofThe Associated Press
December 2, 2023, 10:57 am
FILE – A man walks past the Remington Arms Company, January 17, 2013, in Ilion, NY. The upstate New York gun factory, with a history dating back to the 19th century, is expected to close in March 2024, according to a letter from the company to union officials on Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)
The Associated Press
ILION, NY — A gun factory in upstate New York with a history dating back to the 19th century will close in March, according to a letter from the company to union officials.
RemArms, the current version of Remington Arms, will close its location in the Mohawk Valley village of Ilion around March 4, according to the letter sent Thursday. The letter states that the company “did not come to this decision lightly,” according to the Observer-Dispatch of Utica.
According to union officials, the plant currently has about 270 employees.
An email requesting confirmation was sent to RemArms on Saturday.
Remington, the nation's oldest gunmaker, began making flintlock rifles in the region in 1816. The factory site in the village dates from 1828 and many of the current buildings were built in the early 20th century.
More recently, the company faced temporary closures in Ilion, bankruptcy and legal pressure over the Sandy Hook school massacre. The current company no longer makes the Bushmaster AR-15 rifles that killed 20 first-graders and six teachers in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut.
Investors doing business as the Roundhill Group bought the gun manufacturer Remington, including operations in Ilion and Lenoir City, Tennessee, for $13 million. Owners announced plans in 2021 to move the company's headquarters to Georgia.
Union officials this week called the news disappointing.
“The workers in Ilion enabled RemArms to rise from the ashes of the Remington Arms bankruptcy in 2020-2021,” Cecil E. Robert, president of United Mine Workers of America International, said in a prepared statement. “Without these employees and their dedication to producing the finest firearms in the world, this company simply would not exist.”