End of an era: America's oldest gun manufacturing plant in Ilion, New York to close doors

ILION, N.Y. — Remington Arms, a longstanding employer in Ilion, New York is set to close its doors in March 2024. The facility is the longest-operating gun manufacturing plant in America.

Three hundred employees will be impacted by the closure. The Remington plant first opened in 1828 and produced firearms used by civilians and military forces.

RemArms, LLC, which owns the Remington firearms facility in Ilion will continue to operate its manufacturing facility in Huntsville, Alabama which opened in 2014.

For many local families, Remington Arms has been more than just a workplace; creating a legacy of employment that spans across generations.

In a memo addressed to employees, RemArms, LLC emphasized that the decision to close the Ilion facility was not taken lightly.

I am writing to inform you that RemArms, LLC has decided to close its entire operation at 14 Hoefler Avenue, NY 13357. The Company expects that operations at the Ilion Facility will conclude on or about March 4, 2024.

The plant has seen significant issues economic and political issues over the last 15 years. In 2012, a Remington ‘Bushmaster’ AR-15 was used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that left 20 first graders and six educators dead.

The families of nine victims of the shooting sued Remington in 2015, saying the company should not sell weapons like the AR-15 to the public. A $73 million settlement was reached in 2022.

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In 2013, after the passage of New York’s Safe Act, one of the strictest gun control laws in the country, the company threatened to leave the state. A year later, they opened a new manufacturing facility in Alabama, which has much looser gun control laws than New York.

Since 2007, the company has changed hands several times and undertook several government contracts to produce firearms. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and 2020, when it was sold to the company’s current owners and renamed RemArms, LLC.

In a statement on the closure, Representative Elise Stefanik (NY-24), said in part:

I have spoken with local officials and Remington Arms union members in United Mine Workers of America, Local 717 about how we must stand up to New York’s failed unconstitutional gun bans.

This closure marks the end of an era for Ilion as the small village loses its largest employer.