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SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Springfield-based gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson announced on Thursday that it would move its company headquarters to Tennessee.
The gun-maker has been headquartered in Springfield since 1852. The company said it was moving for several reasons, but listed more "support for the 2nd Amendment" as one of the key motivations.
Smith & Wesson CEO Mark Smith pointed to bills in the Massachusetts State House that would prevent the company from making certain guns in the state. While Smith did not mention any bills by name, there is a bill sponsored in the current session by Rep. David Paul Linsky (D-Natick) that would ban all semi-automatic guns in the state.
The company said that the bills would try to outlaw "products made up over 60% of our revenue last year." The company will move its headquarters to Maryville, Tennessee, outside of Knoxville, and said the location was also more affordable for its employees. The company will move 750 jobs from its sites in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Missouri to Tennessee.
More than a thousand jobs will remain in Massachusetts, where the company will keep some manufacturing centers.
Smith & Wesson expect construction to be done on the new headquarters in 2023.
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Written by Chaiel Schaffel