BATON ROUGE, LA (NBC33) — Gun makers say any type of assault weapons ban proposal could all but kill their industry and it would impact people across the country.

Will Hayden owns Red Jacket Firearms in Baton Rouge. He believes any type of ban will hurt the industry.

“The bread and butter of the entire weapons industry are being flushed away - kicked to the wayside,” he said.

Hayden believes it could leave behind disastrous results. That could mean hundreds, even thousands across the country out of work, and one of America’s few manufacturing industries paralyzed.

Joe Meaux is the operations manager of Red Jacket. He told NBC33 News the proposal is a knee jerk reaction to what happened in Newtown, Connecticut.

“A lot of what this assault weapons bans is being based on emotion - working on peoples emotion,” he said.

He doesn’t think it will solve the gun problems that lead to mass shootings.

“If somebody wants to do something, murder’s already illegal, theft is illegal, stealing guns is already illegal; what more can we do to make it illegal?”

Hayden says there's a balance between keeping AR-15's out of the wrong hands, while not hurting the entire gun industry. But he says people aren't racing to find that balance. He worries a rush to judgment will leave his workers without a paycheck.

“I would take the emotion and politics completely out of it,” he said.

Hayden wants lawmakers, even the President, to address what he says the real problem, which he says is the people behind the gun.

“To me, it’s so basic. I feel like an idiot even saying it. How can you blame an inanimate object for the actions of a criminally insane individual?”

A though he says is falling on deaf ears and the results could be a big step backward for the nations economy.

One of the President's proposals includes universal background checks. That means criminal and mental background checks before a gun is sold.

Any changes to gun control legislation have to be approved by congress in Washington, D.C.
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