ERIE, Colo. (CBS4) – A Colorado company is threatening to leave the state if a bill to ban high-capacity ammunition magazines becomes law.

CBS4 Investigator Rick Sallinger toured the company in Erie. They said they would certainly prefer to stay.

The company is called Magpul. Among other products, they make ammunition magazines which can hold up to 30 rounds. Tuesday night a state House committee took the first step towards banning them.

Magpul is one of the largest producers of the high-capacity magazines in the country.

“Actually, every product you see here being made today on these magazine assembly lines would be affected by the bill,” Duane Liptak with Magpul told Sallinger during the tour.

The company’s chief operating officer, Doug Smith, made it clear to the state legislature that if the bill becomes law they will leave Colorado.

“We will be forced to take our operation and business activity through our subcontractors and suppliers out of the state,” Smith told lawmakers.

The bill in its present form would ban magazines carry over 15 rounds. Magpul has those that carry more, as displayed on its website.

The company has some 200 workers. It says another 400 suppliers and contractors would be affected by a move. But the committee chairman, Rep. Daniel Kagan, D-Cherry Hills Village, insisted there is no need to move.

“Your understanding of the bill is completely wrong,” Kagan said. “There is no restriction on manufacturing high-capacity magazines or anything else in the state of Colorado.”

Liptak said that’s not accurate.

“It may be not have been what they intended when they drafted the language, however that’s exactly how the bill reads,” Liptak said.

Magpul calls itself a “proud Colorado company,” but says in part for ideological reasons it cannot stay if the state bans one of its major products.