Magpul, one of the country’s largest producers of ammunition magazines, vowed to leave Colorado if the state’s Democrats passed a law limiting magazine capacities to 15 rounds. In 2013 anti-gun Democrats, reveling in the successful implementation of the “Colorado Model” (funded by four wealthy liberals, designed to “turn red states blue”) ignored the threat and passed a series of anti-gun measures that included that limitation on magazines.

Magpul kept its vow and moved its Erie, Colorado, manufacturing facilities (shown) to Cheyenne, Wyoming in 2014, just across the northern border. It took with it some 200 jobs, estimated to generate an estimated $14.3 million windfall for Laramie County, and cut Colorado’s revenues by a similar amount.

Since then the company has doubled its workforce and the size of its manufacturing facilities, generating even more revenue for Wyoming.

Magpul didn’t leave Colorado quietly. As it became clear in 2013 that the Democrat-controlled legislature and the Democrat governor were going to sign the bill into law, the company announced its “Boulder Airlift”:

In the battle for Colorado freedoms, support for Second Amendment rights is being delivered by Magpul Industries Corporation. Fielded in the millions by US and its allies since 2007, the PMAG [polymer magazine] is the magazine of choice for those defending freedom and democracy around the world.

Now, with the ability of Coloradans to purchase new standard capacity magazines in jeopardy, Magpul Industries is working to supply as many as possible to the good people of Colorado. Similar to the Berlin Airlift, the Boulder Airlift will bring much-needed gun supplies to freedom-loving residents trapped inside occupied territory.

Justice of a sort was delivered last week when Magpul announced that it had inked an exclusive contract with the U.S. Marines to supply all its magazines into the future. This frustrated Republican Kevin Grantham (present in the legislature when the bill was being passed by the Democrats over the Republican Party’s minority opposition) who is now serving as state senate president:

You tell a company they can’t sell a product in your state, when it’s a good product and a popular product? They move across the state line, they get a lot of support and they get a big contract!

We lost not only the jobs they had when they were here, we lost the jobs they’ve grown into since, and we’re losing all the jobs they’re going to grow into in future years with this contract.

Once [they] have the Marine contract, I don’t see how the other branches [of the military] won’t follow suit eventually. That’s a massive, massive contract just a short distance up the road.

We lost that.

And what good did this gun law do? Not a blasted thing.

When The New American originally covered the story, the author quoted from Hosea 8:7: “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” When anti-gun zealots forced their unwanted worldviews onto unsuspecting citizenry, there were consequences. This move backfired, leaving those zealots disgraced, Colorado poorer, and its citizens less free.

An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American magazine and blogs frequently at LightFromTheRight.com, primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Photo of workers assembling magazines in Erie, Colo., Magpul plant in 2013: AP Images

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Reaping the Whirlwind: the Colorado Model and Gun Control