Montana Governor Wooing Colorado Gun Makers

By Cam Edwards Bearing Arms

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte has a message for the beleaguered firearms industry in the blue state of Colorado: since you’re clearly not welcome there, why not move to a place that will treat you right?

In a new video, Gianforte calls out Colorado Gov. Jared Polis for signing a sweeping bill that bans the purchase of most semi-automatic long guns unless the buyer first obtains a permission slip from their local sheriff; contrasting that authoritarian move with the freedom-loving and 2A-accepting culture in Big Sky Country.

Last week the Democratic governor of Colorado signed into law one of the most restrictive gun bans ever adopted in the United States. The law bans the manufacturing and selling of semi-automatic firearms. This is on top of the liberal state’s existing ban on high capacity magazines. That’s just crazy!

If you needed another sign that Democrat governors are out of touch with reality, well here it is. Colorado is ranked in the top ten states with the biggest gun industries.

So to all gun manufacturers in Colorado, my question for you is simple: do you want to move back to America?

Gianforte goes on to extoll the virtues of Montana, noting that the state is already home to more than 150 gun and ammo makers, which he says makes the state the home to more firearm industry members per capita than any other state in the country.

The governor also pointed to the strong 2A stance taken by lawmakers and himself, including adoption of Constitutional Carry and prohibiting financial companies from using gun store-specific merchant category codes.

“In Montana, we embrace freedom and the free enterprise system,” Gianforte says in the ad, before once more inviting those in the industry to “come on home to America, right here in Montana.”

As far as messaging goes, Gianforte’s video is pretty good. I think though, he could have made his pitch even stronger by pointing out that, unlike Colorado, most Montana residents are strongly supportive of the Second Amendment as well. When gun control activist Ryan Busse ran against Gianforte in the 2024 governor’s race, the Giffords senior advisor and expert witness for anti-gun regimes in California and Illinois couldn’t even get 40% of the vote.

Jared Polis and the Democratic majorities in the Colorado statehouse aren’t just a problem, but a symptom of a deeper issue in the Rocky Mountain State. They only have power because a majority of voters have put them in office, and their attacks on a fundamental civil right hasn’t hurt them politically. Montana not only has different laws than Colorado. It has a different culture as well, and one that’s far more welcoming to both gun owners and the firearms industry than what you’ll find in Denver.

I don’t know if Gianforte’s message will lead to any manufacturer pulling up stakes and moving north, but I’d be shocked if SB 3 didn’t result in major changes to the state’s firearm industry; not only in terms of FFLs leaving the state, but gun and ammo makers as well. Of course, many companies like Magpul left years ago, so the industry’s footprint is much smaller than it used to be, but the continued attacks on the Second Amendment will only fuel the exodus to 2A-friendly states like Montana in the months ahead.

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