Foreign IT Company Gobbles Up Top US Ammunition Manufacturers - Remington, Federal, CCI and Others Sold Off
Even in peaceful times, Americans take a healthy interest in the companies that manufacture their weapons and ammunition. In the present state of the world, that interest should only intensify.
On Monday, Vista Outdoor of Anoka, Minnesota, announced in a news release that it had sold its Sporting Products business to the Czechoslovak Group. Based in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, CSG operates as “a leading industrial technology holding company.”
Yahoo Finance reported that CSG’s newly acquired business includes major U.S. ammunition manufacturers Remington, Federal, CCI, Hevi-Shot and Speer.
It described CSG’s move as “the largest acquisition in the history of the Czech defense industry.”
Michal Strnad, CSG’s 30-year-old billionaire owner and CEO, expressed a determination to grow the Sporting Products business.
“We look forward to building on the company’s success in delivering innovative, quality products and are confident in the long-term value we can create together,” Strnad said in a statement in the Vista Outdoor release. He added a commitment “to expanding their legacy of U.S. manufacturing and providing resources to accelerate their growth.”
Meanwhile, Sporting Products CEO Jason Vanderbrink embraced the CSG acquisition and echoed the commitment to U.S. manufacturing.
“The company is fully committed to our iconic American brands and expanding our legacy of U.S. manufacturing, support for military and law enforcement customers, and investments in conservation and our hunting and shooting heritage,” Vanderbrink said. “We are excited to work closely with the CSG team as we enter this next phase and position our brands for long-term success.”
Thus, as one might expect, the Czech billionaire seemed most interested in making money by creating “long-term value.” No doubt Vanderbrink and other Sporting Products officials appreciated additional “resources” in the form of capital infusion.
For ordinary Americans, however, transactions of this nature produce at least some degree of anxiety.
The National Rifle Association’s Shooting Illustrated, for instance, noted that the Sporting Products business includes “some of the industry’s foremost ammunition manufacturers.”
Therefore, allowing those manufacturers to become foreign-owned might not strike the average American as the most sensible choice.
Of course, such reservations have nothing to do with Strnad personally and certainly not with the Czech Republic in particular. Having been overrun by tyrants in the mid-20th century — first the Nazis and then the Communists — the Czech people have every reason to appreciate the need for an armed citizenry.
Likewise, American manufacturers have no built-in guarantee of favorable treatment — let alone principled patriotism — from a U.S.-owned “holding company.”
Nonetheless, anxieties remain. After all, how many of their own resources do Americans still control?
Last week, for instance, Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas announced that she would evict a Chinese state-owned company that held farmland in her state.
Communist China, of course, poses threats that the Czech Republic does not. But the principle remains. Ultimate control of U.S. resources must belong only to those who have Americans’ interests foremost in mind.
Furthermore, foreign ownership of U.S. ammunition manufacturing reminds us of some jarring realities.
For instance, free speech means nothing if Americans have no forum in which to speak freely. With this in mind, imagine the present state of the First Amendment had Elon Musk not purchased Twitter. To what extent do our most fundamental freedoms depend on the actions of a single billionaire?
The analogy is imperfect, of course, but the question it raises is similar. Can we allow the practical exercise of our Second Amendment rights to depend on a Czech billionaire?
American companies have no reason to shun friendly foreign investors. Companies that serve the interests of American freedom, however, must place those interests above all else.
Meanwhile, in the present state of the world, Americans will be well served to pay close attention to who controls their essential resources and industries.
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