A self-respecting mythomaniac and movie buff, and also of a certain age, when hearing the name Remington feels the innocent nostalgia of childhood and that black and white Hollywood of Western movies, which sometimes were from the Wild West, of the old west or the wild west.
Remington rifles and revolvers (like Winchesters) evoke gems such as Stagecoach, The Man Who Killed Liberty Valance, Danger Only, Land of the Bold, The Stranger or Passion of the Strong. What extraordinary afternoons in a double session.
That time has passed, like the age of innocence. Contemporary cinema entered other paths of glory and the Wild West in the United States jumped off the screens and became a reality in any of the cardinal points of this country.
In December 2012, the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton (Connecticut), one of the most shocking, left a total of 28 dead, of which 20 were children between six and seven years old. The author, Adam Lanza, used a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle manufactured by Remington.
In an unprecedented case, the Supreme Court gave the green light in 2019 for this legendary weapons manufacturing company to be brought to trial, accused of being responsible for that tragedy. In 2022, he reached an out-of-court agreement with nine of the families, which resulted in the payment of 73 million dollars, to close the case.
This lawsuit and the declaration of suspension of payments are two of the factors that have influenced the oldest weapons manufacturing company in the United States to close its original plant in Ilion, in the Mohawk Valley, an enclave of New York state, where this company was founded even before that place was a municipality, and where Eliphalet Remington forged his first rifle barrel more than 200 years ago, in 1816. Eliphalet refused to give his last name to that settlement (its origin dates back to 1725) and was baptized Ilion in 1852.
The workforce went from 1,300 employees a decade ago to just 300 today.
The main reason for the imminent move this March is due, however, to the high cost of its historic factory. The current owner of Remington Firearms (RemArms) blamed the decision on “production deficiencies” in the letter sent to union leaders. In that writing he alluded to the high cost of maintaining and securing a space of around 92,903 square meters in multiple spaces, some built at the time of the First World War.
Remington is consolidating its operations at the Georgia plant, a state the company says is much friendlier to the firearms industry.
But the relief that those opposed to the open arms bar, the cause of so much mortality, may experience contrasts with the feeling of emptiness expressed by the residents of Ilion, whose motto is “where tradition is preserved, while progress is achieved.” The city of 7,600 inhabitants, 358 kilometers north of Manhattan, faces the prospect of a sharp loss of income and an empty factory that has defined the existence and character of this town, like the car to Detroit or computers to Silicon Valley. .
The four-story headquarters, a brick building located at the confluence of Armory Street and Remington Avenue, has always been the great reference for residents.
The neighbors have not seen the destructive power of what is manufactured in their municipality, but quite the opposite: a source of life. Tragedies happened elsewhere.
Everyone knows someone who works or has worked in those facilities. Jobs at this factory have practically been a birthright. The occupations passed from grandparents to parents and children.
“When the company leaves, it won't be like a factory leaving,” Jim Conover, who started at Remington packaging in 1964 and retired 40 years later as a manager, told the AP. “It will be,” he added, “as if part of your family moved.”
Each one tells the film in their own way and the black and white can be colored.
