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Health & Fitness

Gov Malloy Wanted Bushmaster In CT, Offered Sweet Deal

Malloy offered sweet deal to Bushmaster to come to CT. Now he hates Bushmaster. Politics...

CT Governor Malloy hates guns. No, he loves them. No, he hates them. Oh, please make up your mind, Governor.

Governor Malloy’s administration offered a sweeeet deal to Freedom Group (who owns Bushmaster) to come to CT and add to our commerce. But…well, you know. I see a tad bit of hypocrisy and political shenanigans here, Dannel. Tsk, tsk.

Eight days before Adam Lanza used a Bushmaster AR-15 semiautomatic rifle to kill 26 children and women on Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, state officials offered the manufacturer of the gun a development deal to move its corporate headquarters to Connecticut.

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On Dec. 6, a top state economic development official sent the Freedom Group an offer for a $1 million loan at the low annual interest rate of 2 percent for 10 years — plus other incentives for the company to move its headquarters, with 25 top executives, from Madison, N.C., to Stamford.

The department withdrew the offer on Dec. 18, four days after the Newtown massacre, according to records released in response to a Courant freedom of information request.

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The deal was yanked because of a combination of factors, one of them the announcement by the Freedom Group’s owner — the private equity and hedge fund group Cerberus Capital Management — that it was putting the firearms maker up for sale.

In the three months since the Sandy Hook massacre, Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and his administration have led the call for strong gun-control measures — including a ban on the purchase of semiautomatic rifles such as the Bushmaster. The Democrat-controlled legislature is planning to pass legislation along those lines within weeks.

But prior to Dec. 14, the holding company for Bushmaster was viewed by Malloy’s administration as a corporate plum worth attracting to the city where the governor was mayor for 14 years.

“The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) is pleased to provide this revised letter of intent … in support of the Freedom Group’s … $2,250,000 Headquarters project in Stamford, Connecticut,” Angelo wrote on Dec. 6 on behalf of Malloy’s DECD commissioner, Catherine H. Smith. “One of Governor Malloy’s top priorities is to create a business-friendly environment that attracts investment, spurs job growth and helps industries become more competitive in the global marketplace.”

“In consideration of the Company’s commitment to create 25 full-time jobs in Connecticut, we are pleased to have this opportunity to work with you on a project that will relocate your corporate headquarters,” Angelo wrote to Stephen P. Jackson, an executive for the Freedom Group.

Besides the $1 million, low-interest loan, other incentives in the Dec. 6 letter were Freedom Arms’ possible eligibility for forgiveness of $550,000 of the loan, and for tax credits, if it delivered on its pledge to bring the 25 jobs to Connecticut.

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