Let's not forget area's role in weapons production, January 29, 2010

“But for now, the company is content with stickin’ it to the liberals. ‘We’re fairly proud that we can be amidst a whole bunch of hippies and we can build gun parts that say Boulder on them,’” said by Drake Clark, senior director of sales and business development for Magpul, in a Boulder Daily Camera article (1-1-2010).

By JUDITH MOHLING

Magpul Industries is a growing manufacturer of injection-molded plastic parts that are primarily for use on the AR-15 weapons platform, according to the Camera article, written by Heath Urie.

The Magpul employees are proud and gratified that the parts that they create help to protect battlefield soldiers, and that the company is innovative and cutting edge when it comes to their highly durable molded plastic parts.

However, what about the 60,000 plutonium pits manufactured in Boulder County? They are central to every weapon in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. In a way, those pits say, ‘Boulder,’ on them too.

In 1991 more than 8,000 people worked at Rocky Flats, performing nonnuclear as well as nuclear roles in the production of nuclear weapons. On the nonnuclear side, Rocky Flats was responsible for weapons components made of beryllium, depleted uranium (which many would argue goes on the ‘nuclear side’) and stainless steel. All of these could also say, ‘made in Boulder.’

Unlike Magdul Industries, the manufacturing process at Rocky Flats contaminated and killed workers over the years, and the plutonium residue, much of it in the form of infinitesimally small particles, is radioactive essentially forever and susceptible individuals may wonder years later where on earth their cancer, or birth defects or changes in DNA could have originated—hmmmm, ‘made in Boulder.’

And, science and technology are the major industries in Boulder, including Boulder’s academic resources. Over the years Boulder industries have received billions of dollars in defense contracts—turning out a multitude of technology linked to the military industrial complex—all of which could say, ‘made in Boulder.’

More recently, there were 6,000 defense contracts received in Boulder County during the years 2000 to 2008, bringing nearly $2 billion to the county—‘made in Boulder.’

It’s no hippie or peacenik paradise we have here. ‘Made in Boulder,’ in many ways means blood and death and lasting lethal contamination. We can be proud and gratified by all of this, including Magdul Industries, or saddened and horrified, all according to our vision and philosophy. I’m on the saddened and horrified side and left most (not all!) of my hippiness behind long ago.

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