Heckler & Koch is building a US factory in Georgia, a welcome surprise for US gun buyers. The German arms manufacturer is building a 23 million dollar facility in Columbus, Georgia to built pistols, sport, and hunting guns. At this time we are unaware of exactly what lines are to be produced in the new stateside facility, I assume that it will be models that were previously affected by import restrictions.

So does this mean that HK no longer hates you and we don’t suck anymore? We won’t really know how this will affect the lines offered to US citizens until they tool up and get product rolling out the door. Heckler & Koch couldn’t continue to ignore the market here in the US as a result of the United States being home to the largest civilian arms market in the world.

HK stated that nearly 40 percent of the guns produced in 2016 were not only bound for US shores but were purchased by civilian shooters.

This is a huge step for a company that previously ignored the civilian market largely and resisted the idea of introducing popular designs thanks to strange and hard to understand import laws. Heckler & Koch did want to clarify that the Georgia plant will not be producing and weapons for the US military and is only producing civilian focused firearms in the new facility.

I imagine it will take some time to get the plant built and spin up production, I will be interesting to see what product lines HK designates for civilian buyers. Could this mean we will get a US legal MP7 for the civilian market? Maybe expanded SP5 choices? Only time will tell.

Check out Heckler & Koch on the web to learn more about their product lineup. You can read the original story on Spiegel Online.