HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Colt’s Manufacturing Co. is targeting a wider market in the gunmaker’s most aggressive expansion plan since the Vietnam War.
The company plans to begin making hunting rifles, designing guns that can shoot multicaliber ammunition, and developing new target practice technology.
Colt’s chiefs say they’re also considering expanding the company’s custom-manufacturing shop somewhere in the Hartford area, and are trying to get more federal money for research on a “smart gun” that might be for sale in 10 years.
The gun would use a radio transmitter to keep it from being fired by anyone but its owner.
“We are really excited,” Colt’s President Steven Sliwa said. “We can hardly wait for next week.”
Industry observers are skeptical, but say gun makers — including Colt’s — are enjoying a revival of sorts.
Shooting enthusiasts flooded the market with orders in the early 1990s, fearing that gun-control legislation would soon make purchases harder. But the market became saturated, and orders dropped a couple of years later.
