Albany

Business has been good for Rockland County-based Kahr Arms, so much so that it plans to expand with a new factory on more than 600 acres.

The trouble, at least for New York state: The gun manufacturer, currently based in Rockland County, is expanding across the border in Pennsylvania, and in the process will be moving its headquarters out of the Empire State. The reason, according to a corporate official, can be found in the swift passage last January of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's SAFE gun control law.

It wasn't so much that the measure bans certain kinds of guns and magazines, the company said. Instead, it was the suddenness with which the law was passed — less than 24 hours after being released to the public — leaving Kahr's executives to wonder what kind of unforeseen regulations or restrictions might lie ahead.

"One of our big concerns was, OK, the SAFE Act was passed in the middle of the night. You wake up the next morning and boom, that was it," said Frank Harris, Kahr's vice president of sales and marketing. "We just felt like, gee, if they can do this, what can they do next?

"It's not just the SAFE Act, but the uncertainty." Harris said.

Kahr only employs about a dozen people in its New York headquarters. But shifting its planned expansion, which could add between 80 and 100 jobs, appears to be a blow to Cuomo's push to bring more jobs to the state.

The impending move marks the first time a gun manufacturer is actually leaving New York due to the SAFE Act, which Cuomo put forth in response to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Conn., and the ambush killings of two firefighters in a suburb of Rochester a few days later.

The law, which includes provisions that expanded the state's existing ban on assault-style weapons and limited to seven the number of cartridges that can be loaded into a weapon's magazine, has generated passionate protest among Second Amendment enthusiasts.

"The SAFE Act keeps assault weapons out of the hands of potentially dangerous individuals, and institutes the type of background checks supported by 90 percent of the country," said Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi. "The company's decision was its own to make."

Harris noted that Kahr hasn't completed the purchase of land in an industrial park in Blooming Grove, Pa. That's about a half-hour from the Port Jervis area on the New York side of the border, where the firm had originally planned to expand.

Kahr is checking to make sure the water and sewer lines and other infrastructure are ready before completing the purchase of 620 acres. "The preliminary results are all very favorable," said John Steih, a Pike County lawyer representing the company.

Newspaper reports in Pike County indicate that Kahr executives already have purchased homes in the area. Kahr referenced the impending move, which they hope to complete next year, on their website Monday.

Kahr Arms was founded and is operated by Justin Moon, the fourth son of the late Rev. Son Myung Moon. Raised in the U.S. and educated at Harvard, Moon designed some of Kahr's early pistols. The firm does about $75 million to $100 million annually in sales and also owns the Thompson, Auto-Ordnance and Magnum Research lines.

They have factories in Massachusetts and Minnesota, which they plan to keep operating.

Harris said that the SAFE Act was doubly surprising to people in the firearms world since it came up as industry leaders were at an annual trade show in Las Vegas.

Following passage, "We went over to Pennsylvania almost on a fluke," he said. "We got a very positive response."

News of Kahr's departure came as no surprise to Brian Sampson, executive director of Unshackle Upstate. As the head of a group trying to keep manufacturing and other industries in upstate New York, Sampson says ever-changing regulations are among the biggest challenges, along with New York's top-of-the-heap property taxes and energy costs.

"The scenario that played out — we go to sleep one night and wake up the next morning (with new regulations) — is very common," Sampson said. "You can be highly taxed with low regulations and probably get away with it, but when you are highly taxed and highly regulated, it's a disincentive."

rkarlin@timesunion.com • 518-454-5758 • @RickKarlinTU