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HARTFORD, Connecticut -- Colt, the firearms manufacturer that pioneered the modern gun industry, will get out of the commercial handgun business rather than face a spate of lawsuits by American cities, according to published reports.
Colt^s Manufacturing Company would remain in business making military firearms and collectible guns, Newsweek magazine reported, but would give up making most handguns in part because of the possibility of large court judgments against it. The decision would cost the company 300 jobs at its unionized Connecticut factory, which now employs about 700.
Company founder Samuel Colt patented the revolver in 1836 and began mass-marketing the first firearm capable of being fired multiple times without reloading. The company has produced more than 30 million guns since then, but could be out of the commercial pistol market by the end of October.
"We have to focus on what we know we can make money on, without taking that risk," a Colt executive told Newsweek in an article published Monday. "It^s extremely painful when you have to withdraw from a business for irrational reasons."
The New York Times quoted a Colt executive saying that the company can no longer acquire loans to pay for manufacturing because of lawsuits that "could be worth zero, or a trillion dollars."
Colt is one of several gun manufacturers facing lawsuits from nearly 30 American cities seeking compensation for their costs in treating victims of gunshot wounds. But Colt, which went bankrupt in the early 1990s, is also having trouble paying its vendors, the magazine reported.
The company emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in 1994 and has received several major government contracts since then.
Colt has agreements to produce or refit more than 90,000 of the U.S. armed forces^ standard combat rifle, the M-16. The company is still hoping to develop and market a "smart gun," which can only be fired by the gun^s owner.
Uploaded: 10/11/1999
Uploaded: 10/11/1999