Marlin Firearms to close next year

By The Associated Press
Friday, March 26, 2010 at 4:36 a.m.
NORTH HAVEN, Conn.— Marlin Firearms Co., a 140-year-old company which made a gun that was a favorite of Annie Oakley, is closing its Connecticut plant, company officials said Friday.
Workers at the plant in North Haven say they've been told all 265 employees will lose their jobs.
Jessica Kallam, a spokeswoman with Madison, N.C.'s Remington Arms Co. Inc., which owns Marlin, said the Connecticut plant will close by June 2011 and employees would be offered severance and help finding jobs. She said Marlin is relocating its manufacturing operations to an undetermined site.
Kallam could not confirm if all employees in Connecticut are losing their jobs.
She read a company statement that says Freedom Group, which owns Remington, must reduce its costs to remain competitive.
"Although long term prospects of the business look positive, economic factors beyond Freedom Group's control related to increasing costs and pricing pressures within the firearms industry are impacting the entire Freedom Group of companies," the statement said.
Remington Arms bought Marlin for nearly $42 million in 2007.
Marlin's Web site says John Marlin opened the company in 1870 in New Haven after having worked at the Colt plant in Hartford during the Civil War. The company says its lever action 22 repeater was a favorite gun of Annie Oakley.

I have to wonder what the future holds when boys are no longer weaned on Model 60s.

It's been said we won both World Wars partly because of squirrel hunters ... and Rome fell because Romans stopped raising sons to be warriors.

I think in the quest for more and more taxpayers, we've been sold down the river.

The Remington folks are very consistent. Everything they touch turns to shit.
The once elegant and well built Zastava rifles are the best example.

Rich

OK, that's about all I can take from them. I will be truly heartbroken if Marlin closes it's doors. I don't care if they go the way of Browning, I'm not buying. I will go out of my way to buy an old Browning, or build one myself rather then buy one of those. I'm big into waterfowl and I can tell you nothing compares to the old A-5...I'll leave that alone. Here's one. Use to own a Benelli M-2. Tried it many times over, and it just isn't my old 870. I even used it more then I did the 870, but I went back. Ended up getting rid of it and building my 870 up for half that of the cost of the M-2. Now I have a super sweet gun that I hit much better with. As so many here have said, go custom or don't go at all.

Here's a positive note. This might just open up so many doors for the small time guys. It will leave room for other manufacturers to move into their spot, or even new ones to arise! Bolt guns are pretty well locked down with the custom market, but what about someone going full scale production with these types of CNC'd actions? Maybe offer them at a very affordable price? Barrels and stocks we have a firm grip on, so why not make room for a few levers? The Lever market is long overdue for some renovation. Browning almost (again, almost) reinvented the wheel with their BLR, so where can we go next? Let Freedom Group take it all overseas, the whole lot of 'em. We will prosper for it in the end. Necessity is the mother of all invention.

2nd the Squirrel hunters. It is sad to see our nation is loosing it's warriors...being replaced with those like Warrior...(couldn't help it)


Soapbox: Americans

When my father and I get together, we talk about old times. It's inevitable. Even though I am only 30, I was raised old-school, traditional, and forthcoming. I've gone through hard times, and I've had a little taste of what the last generation has gone through, but I am not as disciplined as them. I am not him, nor is he those that have gone before us, and we disagree quite often. I find myself tell him it's just the natural course of things, that it will work out in the end. Hunters will be born, hard work will still be required, and God and religion will come back into our nation. But I am starting to see the big picture. It isn't going to happen without reason. It is a hard lessen that teaches discipline, not words. I blame it on myself; my generation. We are more educated then ever before, but we learn it all without discipline. It is easy to see why. Easier! Faster! More ROI! More comfort! More, more, more. The "Me" generation. We can just get it made overseas, use cheaper parts, automate everything. It is taking that very dollar we are trying to make out of our economy and running what we have left into the ground. Is the Automobile industry not showing us the light? We must see this. Everything is telling us this. Our country is lined up for "Change", and that is certain. If it is to change, firearms will lead the way. Did we all not see this coming?