Colt Said to Be Cutting Handgun Sales

NEW YORK —  More than 160 years after Sam Colt invented the revolver, the company that bears his name is getting out of the consumer handgun business because of potential lawsuits it may face, it was reported on Sunday night.

The West Hartford, Conn.-based Colt’s Manufacturing Co. will virtually stop taking orders for commercial handguns before the end of this month, according to a newsmagazine.

Citing industry sources it did not name, Newsweek said in editions that hit newsstands today that the gun-maker also will lay off as many as 300 of its 700 union workers in Connecticut.

Colt’s president could not be reached for comment.

A telephone message was left at his home Sunday night.

Calling Colt’s the biggest victim of lawsuits filed against the gun industry, Newsweek reported that the cash-squeezed company is having trouble paying its vendors and hopes to avoid the damage of a possible jury verdict by abandoning the handgun business--at least for now.

“We have to focus on what we know we can make money on, without taking that risk,” a Colt’s executive told Newsweek.

“It’s extremely painful when you have to withdraw from a business for irrational reasons.”

Colt’s manufactures firearms for personal protection, sport shooting and law enforcement.

Gun manufacturers are caught in the budding legal war resulting from lawsuits brought by shooting victims and their families as well as from municipalities that are suing to force gun makers to pay the cost of gun-related crimes.

So far, 29 U.S. cities have filed suit against the industry.

But last week, in what was seen as a minor victory for the gun industry, a judge in Cincinnati threw out that city’s suit against gun makers, saying he had no authority over the issue brought before the Hamilton County Court.

He said it more appropriately belonged in the Ohio state Legislature. The city is appealing the ruling.

Colt’s will keep making military and collectible guns, which are the bulk of its business, Newsweek reported. And its new start-up company--iColt--plans to market a “smart gun,” which can be fired only by the owner, sometime next year.

The company that grew out of Sam Colt’s 1830s invention of a firearm capable of firing without reloading entered into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1992.

It emerged from bankruptcy in 1994 when a new group of investors purchased the firm.