The Gunrunners

This page is part of the world information. In fact, it's a snippet of economy and trade - trading outfits and centers

The Gunrunners:

Short overview and history:

The beginnings of the Gunrunners are little glamorous. Originally, they were a gang that left the Hub in the late 2120s to conquer a new, own, territory in the Angel's Boneyard. Around 2131, shortly after their arrival in the Angel's Boneyard, they nested themselves in an abandoned factory, fortified their position – and then decided to rather use this still completely functional production facility to build weapons and ammunition themselves.
In the beginning the Gunrunners produced only for their own needs. 2155 they finally left their past as a plundering gang behind and began becoming businesspersons and started selling weapons.
After they had quickly used up their store of scrap metal building new weapons, they started building fresh replenishment, mainly from the nearby Adytum. As the Regulators took the control in 2158, the trade balance between the two groups began looking worse and worse for the Gunrunner. They tried opening new trade routes, but the nearby established nest of Deathclaws made this impossible. In 2161 the Gunrunners were economically done, but to their fortune, the Vault-Dweller visited the Boneyard in that year, destroyed the Deathclaw nest for the Gunrunners and helped throw the Regulators out of the Adytum and give it back to it’s people.
The trade routes were open to the Gunrunners again, and once more, their business flourished. The Gunrunners and their product line-up grew, weapons and ammunition stayed in demand in the Wasteland. The secret of their success never changed from their early days until 2247: an astonishingly loose organization, that leaves the technicians and engineers much needed creative liberty, a continuous stream of new employees that bring new ideas and blood into the organization and many production techniques – many of those dating back to before the Great War – that guarantee high quality. The Gunrunners were producing the largest part of the NCR Rangers firepower even before the Angel's Boneyard joined the Republic. In fact, they did so before the Year of Fire, before the Rangers became the official military of the Republic.

Structure, size and organization:

When the Gunrunners were a gang, their leader was the one person, that both enjoyed the loyalty and the faith of the gang, as well as the best commander during raids and the one being regarded as fairest arbiter of disputes in the family. The procedure to dispose one and appoint the next were rather informal – but nearly always respected by all involved – that at least is what the Gunrunners of the year 2247 claim.
When they slowly became a respectable company of professional mechanics and business persons, structures had to be created. In the year 2161, the Gunrunners were not far from dissolving, but were spared by fate due to the intervention of the Vault-Dweller. They got an in the wastes very rare second chance and used it. Also in 2161, just a few days after the Regulators were expelled from the Adytum, they chose a committee from their ranks, that was tasked with creating the needed structures, structures, that should make it possible to develop a true business strategy and to enforce it.
Six months later, the Code of the Gunrunners was created. It divided the company into three Divisions, regulated the method of electing the directors of the divisions and of the CEOs of the Gunrunners and what rights and duties those posts would entail. Furthermore, they created the procedures for expanding the Gunrunners.
The divisions were ‘Buying and Selling’, ‘Security’ and of course ‘Production and Development’. Each local branch of the Gunrunners has three directors, each heading the division of that branch. The leadership of the whole company is made up of the Chief Executive Officers, one from each division and they are headquartered in the main branch of the Gunrunners in the Angel's Boneyard.
Both the directors as well as the CEOs are elected by the Gunrunners, staying in office for five years after the election. A Gunrunner who has been working, in any way whatsoever, for two years for the Gunrunners, has a vote. For each further year, he gets another vote, meaning a Gunrunner who worked there for 10 years has 8 votes. A Gunrunner may only vote for a candidate for CEO of his own division, for the directors of branches, only the people working in that branch have a vote. For example, a Gunrunner of the ‘Security’ Division has no vote for the CEO of the ‘Production and Development’ CEO – as a Gunrunner based in the Angel's Boneyard would have no vote for the post of director of the ‘Security’ Division in Shady Sands.

In the year 2247 the Gunrunners have a lot of growth behind them. As most important supplier of weaponry to the NCR Rangers, they maintain a large branch in view of the headquarters of the Rangers in Shady Sands, that only has a bit of production capacity, but is full of staff working for ‘Buying and Selling’.
Their headquarters are still located in the Angel's Boneyard. About 70% of their production is from there and that is also where the CEOs are.
The Gunrunners have also opened a large branch in the Hub and many people claim, that this branch works closely with Ranger Platoon 35 – not, that there is a clear statement to what exactly Platoon 35 really does. The rumors go from research into bio weapons like the FEV Poison of the Enclave to tanks and power armor, up to the construction of an NCR Air Force. Really known is only, that the Gunrunners have about 25% of their production in the Hub.

In total, there are about 600 Gunrunners, with 400 working in Production and Development and the rest evenly spread between Buying and Selling and Security.

Business practices:

The Gunrunners got their start as little structured, nearly anarchistic gang. Even if they have long since stopped raiding and pillaging, they still seem unorganized in comparison to the Crimson Caravans or the Far Go Traders.
In some ways, this appearance is wrong. While the Gunrunners have a friendly, familiar atmosphere in which everyone gives his best to have fun at work, but when all is said and done, it’s still about work and profit, for the company as a whole as well as for single employees.
In fact, the Gunrunners were more organized before their time as traders, as many trading companies – not to mention most other gangs. They shared their plunder after a certain scheme, that considered all those involved, even those, who were not direct participants in the raid, but instead guarded their lair. Those received accordingly less, after all, they had not been shot at, but they were always able to switch position with one of their colleagues for the next raid. The early Gunrunners, that were still Raiders and Outlaws, even had a shared “booty fund” which was filled more and more after each raid, to serve as a rainy day fund in emergencies.
Even as mechanics and traders and even after more than a century, they still hold to their original tradition. The contracts are nowadays written and somewhat more clearly formulated and the word ‘plunder’ has been exchanged with the word ‘profit’, but that’s pretty much all the change there has been. An employee of the Gunrunners receives a fixed, comparatively high wage, and can earn a bonus payment, by helping the whole of the company in some form. Bonuses have been earned by single Gunrunners by creating or finding new construction plans for weapons, by simplifying or improving production with clever suggestions, by pulling in new, large, buyers or by defending a caravan or a trading post of the Gunrunners energetically, as a guard.
The Gunrunners try not to swindle their employees – even those, that do more or less unqualified work. The work contracts are usually open-ended, with a month long period of notice. However, they do not subscribe to the principle, that the same work deserves the same pay – wages are somewhat based on how long a person has been an employee of the Gunrunners, and partly on how precious this person and their work is for the company. The average Gunrunner earns about 450 $ a month (not counting possible bonus payments), with wages varying widely of course, between simple gofers in the storage rooms (around 200 $) to experts and specialists in manufacturing the very best firearms in the Wasteland (up to 3000 $). On the other hand, it’s not uncommon to rise the ranks and get further training in the company.

The largest part of the needed raw materials, the Gunrunners buy from scavengers operating in the Angel's Boneyard – even after one and half centuries, there is more than enough scrap metal in the ruins of Los Angeles. But they also greet with great pleasure independent caravans that drive to their gates and sell scrap metal or trade it for weapons and ammunition. The largest buyer of the Gunrunners supplies are the NCR Rangers, but by far not the only ones. The Gunrunners sell their products to civilians and other official agencies of the NCR and even outside of the NCR. They have little trade with the Shi in San Francisco and none with Vault-City – but as much as they produce, a lot of their products end up there anyway, over several middle men.

Current situation and plans for the future:

The CEOs of the Gunrunners are, by and large, quite content with the status quo. Unlike the Crimson Caravans the Gunrunners were never renowned for their adventurous way. And unlike the Far Go Traders, they never showed a lot of interest in filling all niches of the economy.
The Gunrunners are more careful and conservative – they have been experimenting since 2243 with the production of armor and wish to expand their product range with a selection of armors. Likewise, they wish to produce more energy weapons, something they’ve been doing in very small numbers until now. In the Production and Development Division there are several experiments taking place with vehicles, artillery cannons, mortars and much more that could bear fruits, if developed if produced up to series-production readiness – but they invest into none of these projects so much money that it has to succeed or the company will bankrupt.
The Gunrunners expand – similar to the NCR itself – slowly but continuously. And they keep to their traditions as they do so, both the tradition of a relaxed working environment as well as the tradition to produce the best, most accurate and most deadly arms of the Wasteland.