https://www.dw.com/en/sig-saue...s-factory/a-53689378

SIG Sauer to shutter German weapons factory

Arms manufacturer SIG Sauer says it will close its German branch late this year, blaming German strictures on sports guns. Its thriving US armoury based in New Hampshire delivers arms to the US military.

SIG Sauer, long the target of disarmament campaigners in Germany, announced Thursday it intended by year's end to close its factory at Eckernförde near Kiel, capital of Germany's northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein.

It blamed "locational handicaps" hindering its diverse pistol and sports guns sales, claiming a "few other local producers" were preferred in government purchases for Germany's police forces and Bundeswehr military.

Public broadcaster NDR quoted manager Tim Castagne as saying the workers' council at the Eckernförde site, established in 1951, had been briefed about some 125 job losses as well plans to fulfil purchase orders.

"Due to its international orientation, SIG Sauer is systematically excluded from tenders [in Germany], said Castagne, intimating, said NDR, that most of its weapons were developed in the United States.

Origins in Switzerland

SIG Sauer, with interlinked ownerships, and origins going to 1864 in Switzerland, relocated within the USA in 1990, establishing at Newington, New Hampshire, an arms factory and "state-of-the-art" training academy, now with 1,200 employees.

SIG Sauer Inc.'s products include its P-series handguns for "the law enforcement market," rifles, including sports versions, and machine guns for the US military.

On Monday, its US branch said it was "proud" to announce delivery of lightweight "Next Generation" machine guns and "greater penetration" ammunition to the US Army.

Read more: German arms exports - what you need to know

German weapons kill 'every 14 minutes'

In April, German public broadcaster SWR reported that Kiel prosecutors were examining fresh claims that SIG Sauer's US branch was implicated in the export of weapons to Colombia and Mexicowithout a German government export permit.

Last month, when Germany published its arms export data for 2019, opposition Left Party disarmament expert Sevim Dagdelen slammed SIG Sauer, along with Heckler & Koch and Carl Walther, and federal authorities in Berlin.

"It doesn't seem to bother the Federal Government that every 14 minutes around the world a person is killed by a German weapon," exclaimed Dagdelen.

Jib jab. https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...0601935/m/6810019074

Oops. I did try searching, but I guess I had the wrong search terms.

quote:

"It doesn't seem to bother the Federal Government that every 14 minutes around the world a person is killed by a German weapon," exclaimed Dagdelen.

Nothing wrong with killing long as the right people get killed. Dagdelen is an idiot.

quote:

Originally posted by hberttmank:

quote:

"It doesn't seem to bother the Federal Government that every 14 minutes around the world a person is killed by a German weapon," exclaimed Dagdelen.

At that rate, how long will it take them to catch up to a previous iteration of their government?