Oregon-made rifle scopes shared a White House stage Monday with Stetson hats and Gibson guitars during a products showcase designed to promote U.S. manufacturing.

Executives with Beaverton-based Leupold & Stevens were on hand for the Made in America showcase featuring companies from each state, from Liberty Bottleworks of Washington to Caterpillar of Illinois to Chick-fil-A of Georgia.

Leupold & Stevens executives Rob Nees (left) and Shane Meisel display their company's rifle scopes during the Made in America Product Showcase, Monday, July 17, 2017, in the Blue Room at the White House in Washington, D.C.

President Donald Trump has made shoring up U.S. manufacturing a key tenet of his "America first" agenda and his promise to create 25 million jobs in 10 years. To that end, he has pulled the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and pledged to negotiate better trade deals.

But he has also been accused of hypocrisy, as many of his Trump-label products are made overseas.

At Monday's event, Trump said he would take more legal and regulatory steps in the next six months to protect American manufacturers, criticizing trade practices he said have hurt U.S. companies.

"I want to make a pledge to each and every one of you," he said. "No longer are we going to allow other countries to break the rules, steal our jobs and drain our wealth."

Shane Meisel, director of international sales and marketing for Leupold & Stevens, said the company is happy to see the renewed focus on American manufacturing, and was honored to be recognized by the White House.

The fifth-generation company was founded in Portland in 1907, and moved to Beaverton in the '60s. Now, the company employs more than 700 – including 96 engineers – at its 160,000-square-foot factory and offices in Beaverton and its distribution center off U.S. 26. Other than glass lenses and rubber O-rings, every component is made in its factory, Meisel said.

Leupold & Stevens makes rifle scopes, rangefinders, binoculars and mounting systems. Here's a peek inside its Beaverton factory.

Meisel said Leupold & Stevens is the world's largest rifle scope manufacturer in terms of sales. It sells scopes to hunters and competitive shooters, as well as to law enforcement and military personnel. The company has contracts with the U.S. military, as well as militaries for Australia, Canada, Israel and Japan, he said.

Meisel said the company has kept production stateside because of its commitment to quality control.

"We have had many opportunities to shift manufacturing overseas," he said. "The products we make are precision instruments, and they need to be made right."

There's a lot riding on the quality of a rifle scope, he explained. If a scope malfunctions, a missed shot is the best-case scenario. In the worst-case scenario, he said, someone dies.

The company has grown in recent years, adding capacity to the factory, Meisel said. This growth is driven by increased demand.

Better access to shooting ranges has encouraged more people to pick up guns, he said. The fastest growing segment for Leupold & Stevens is women, who are increasingly taking up hunting and shooting sports, he said.

The region's locavore movement, usually associated with farmers markets and high-end restaurants, is also driving the company's growth.

"There's nothing more local or organic than some deer or elk meat from the coast range," Meisel said.

amarum@oregonian.com 503-294-5911 @annamarum

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