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AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Texas Governor Rick Perry on Friday said a gun manufacturer that has decided to leave Connecticut should “come on down” to the Lone Star State.

PTR Industries, a maker of military-style rifles, threatened to leave Connecticut after the passage of one of the toughest gun-control laws in the United States. Connecticut enacted the measure in the wake of the Newtown school shooting that killed 20 first-graders and six adults.

“Hey, PTR,” Perry posted on Twitter on Friday. “Texas is still wide open for business!! Come on down!”

The Connecticut law bans high-capacity ammunition clips of the kind used in the December school shooting and adds to the firearms covered by the state’s assault-weapons ban.

A second Connecticut gun company, Stag Arms, a maker of AR-15 style rifles, is also threatening to leave the state. The companies are being wooed by officials from gun-friendlier states such as Florida and Arkansas, as well as Texas.

“We want to send a message that Texas is wide open for business, whether you’re a weapons manufacturer or whether you’re a tubular steel manufacturer,” Perry told reporters in Austin on Friday.

“There is still a place for freedom that is very much alive and well,” the Republican governor added. “That place is called Texas.”