A Virginia firearms manufacturer is moving its entire operation to Georgia, citing new gun-control laws signed by Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger as making business in the state untenable.
Rideout Arsenal, a Virginia-based designer and manufacturer of high-performance competition pistols, announced Tuesday it is pulling its entire operation out of the commonwealth and relocating to Thomasville, Georgia. The reason, according to the company's own co-founder, is blunt: Spanberger's gun-control laws made staying impossible.
The move carries a $22 million investment and 120 new jobs to Thomas County, according to an announcement from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's office on June 10. Travis Rideout, co-founder of Rideout Arsenal, named the legislation directly. "Recent anti-gun legislation in Virginia created a significant uncertainty for our company and ultimately forced us to look for a state where we could continue operating, investing, and growing with confidence," Rideout said, as reported by WSB-TV Atlanta and WCTV.
The laws at issue are sweeping. Spanberger signed legislation on May 15 banning the manufacture, sale, and transfer of broad categories of semi-automatic firearms, effective July 1, along with a prohibition on magazines capable of holding more than 15 rounds. The bill covers semi-automatic rifles, pistols, and shotguns that meet certain criteria under what Virginia now terms "assault firearms."
For Rideout Arsenal, the magazine limit is particularly direct. The company's flagship product, the Rideout Arsenal Dragon, is a high-performance competition pistol designed to ship with 17- and 20-round magazines, according to The Firearm Blog. Under Virginia's new law, those products could no longer legally be manufactured or sold in the state.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp framed the announcement as a straightforward win for his state. His office confirmed Rideout Arsenal will build its new facility at the Plantation Oak Industrial Park in Thomas County, with additional buildings planned as the company expands over the next several years. Kemp has made Georgia's pro-business, pro-Second Amendment posture a signature of his administration, and this relocation fits the pattern: when a state's regulatory climate turns hostile to an industry, that industry finds a more welcoming home.
Virginia's gun industry is also contending with more than the sales and manufacturing bans. Spanberger signed separate legislation requiring firearm manufacturers, dealers, and distributors to adopt unspecified "reasonable controls" over their products and exposing them to civil suits if their firearms are implicated in public harms, according to the governor's office. That liability framework is distinct from the assault-firearms ban and does not face the same constitutional challenge.
The ban drew immediate legal challenges. The NRA, joined by the Firearms Policy Coalition and the Second Amendment Foundation, sued in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on the day Spanberger signed the law, arguing the prohibition violates the Second Amendment, according to WTVR. Virginia firearms retailers and the Virginia Shooting Sports Association filed a separate state challenge in Washington County Circuit Court, and Gun Owners of America joined the Virginia Citizens Defense League in a third suit in Lancaster County Circuit Court.
What Comes Next for Virginia's Gun Industry
Whether other firearms businesses follow Rideout Arsenal out of state depends in part on how those legal challenges play out. Courts could halt the ban before its July 1 effective date, relieving some pressure on Virginia manufacturers. But the broader liability law, already in effect, is a separate matter that no injunction on the firearms ban would resolve.
For the industry at large, the Rideout Arsenal move puts a concrete number on the cost of restrictive gun legislation: $22 million and 120 jobs, redirected to a state that chose a different path. Thomas County, Georgia, is the direct beneficiary. Virginia is left to weigh whether the political aims behind Spanberger's laws are worth the economic price, as the July 1 effective date draws closer and the question of how many more businesses are drawing up their own relocation plans goes unanswered.
