GALLATIN, Tenn. (AP) — Company and state officials are celebrating the groundbreaking at Italian gun-maker Beretta USA’s new plant in Tennessee.

Berretta announced in January that it would build a new manufacturing and research facility in the Nashville suburb of Gallatin.

The company later announced in July that concerns over a strict gun-control law enacted in Maryland last year have made it necessary to move all its weapons making from there to Tennessee. Several states began wooing Beretta from Maryland after the gun-control measures were enacted there last year.

Beretta has operated in Italy since 1526. The family-owned company makes a variety of firearms, ranging from hunting shotguns to the U.S. Armed Forces M-9 pistol.

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