Colt’s Says No, It Won’t Stop Handgun Sales

An executive from Colt’s Manufacturing Co., inventor of the six-shooter, strongly disputed reports Monday that the company will stop selling handguns.

“The fact of the matter is that we are oversold on virtually all our guns. They are very much in demand, all of these handguns, principally by collectors. We intend to produce sufficient quantity to service the demand,” Carlton Chen, vice president and general counsel for Colt’s, told the Hartford Courant. “So I hardly think that is exiting the handgun business.”

Citing unidentified industry sources, Newsweek magazine reports that the gun maker also will lay off as many as 300 of its 700 union workers in Connecticut. Chen acknowledged that layoffs are being considered.

According to the reports, the company plans to reduce dramatically the number of commercial weapons it makes and focus instead on selling to the military, law enforcement agencies and collectors, who already account for the bulk of its business.