BRISTOL, Conn. — Even gun makers want to be liked. So governors and other politicians from states eager to embrace the industry have descended on places where they are not so popular — like Connecticut, Maryland, New York and Colorado — offering tax breaks and outright cash grants to persuade them to relocate.

“I sensed an opportunity,” said Alan Clemmons, a South Carolina state representative, who traveled to Connecticut in the spring as part of a successful effort to lure PTR, a maker of assault rifles here.

“They are not feeling loved right now in Connecticut. We’re delighted to have them.”

In June, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and South Dakota’s governor, Dennis Daugaard, toured Connecticut within days of one another, visiting sites like the Colt factory in Hartford, which the famed gun maker has called home for more than 150 years.

“Shooting and hunting and the outdoors is more of a culture and a way of life in South Dakota than in some larger metropolitan areas,” said Pat Costello, the commissioner of the governor’s Office of Economic Development in South Dakota. “It’s a target industry for us.”