Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam speaks during a ceremony at the state Capitol in Nashville on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014, to announce that firearms maker Beretta USA Corp. is building a new manufacturing a research facility in the state. The $45 million plant is expected to be completed this year and create 300 jobs.Beretta USA Corp., maker of the M-9 pistol for U.S. armed forces, will build a firearms plant in Tennessee, following through on a promise it made to seek out a more gun-friendly state for its manufacturing operations.
The world’s oldest manufacturing dynasty, which has operated from Italy since 1526, will create 300 jobs at a $45 million manufacturing and R&D facility in Gallatin, Tenn., just north of Nashville.
“From the moment when we started to consider a location outside of the state of Maryland for our manufacturing expansion, Gov. Haslam and his economic development team did an excellent job demonstrating the benefits of doing business in Tennessee,” said Franco Gussalli Beretta, executive vice-president and a director of Beretta U.S.A. Corp. “We are convinced we could find no better place than Tennessee to establish our new manufacturing enterprise.”
Beretta originally planned to expand in its home state of Maryland, but the state passed strict gun control measures in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting that would have made many of the company’s products illegal.
“Why expand in a place where the people who built the gun couldn’t buy it?” Jeffrey Reh, general counsel for Beretta, told the Washington Post last year.