http://www.newsday.com/ap/rnmpmt1y.htm
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Colt's Manufacturing Co. plans to create a
separate company to produce its high-tech "smart gun," a weapon that can only be
fired by an authorized user, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Known as iColt, the new company could help distance the gun maker from the
controversy surrounding the new weapon, which some gun advocates call a
concession to firearm foes and some antigun lobbyists view as a hollow gesture
toward weapon safety.
Steven Sliwa, president and chief executive of Colt's, will head the spin-off
company. Retired Gen. William Keys, a Colt's board member, will take over the
remaining core business, focusing on military small arms.
Sliwa could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Several messages were left
at his office and the office of Colt's spokesman Richard Esposito.
The smart gun looks like an ordinary weapon and contains a tiny radio
transmitter. The shooter must wear a transponder, which fits in a ring or bracelet,
to operate the trigger.
Colt's, with the help of a $500,000 federal research grant, is the closest of several
gun manufacturers to production, though Sliwa has said the finished product is
still years away.
Some gun makers and owners maintain the smart guns are too smart for their own
good. On its Internet Web site, Beretta USA calls the technology "undeveloped
and unproven."
In particular, Beretta said in a policy statement, smart gun technology could
erroneously lead gunowners to believe their weapons are child- and
accident-proof. Experiments have shown the ID bracelets don't always
communicate with the sensors; owners of multiple weapons might be required to
wear an armful of such bracelets, Beretta said.
Opponents of handguns argue that the technology is wrongly viewed as a
panacea.
Tom Diaz, a policy analyst with the Washington-based Violence Policy Center,
said iColt will ensure the gun maker, which has struggled out of bankruptcy since
1992, continues to receive government subsidies.
The smart gun will not limit gun use, but will tap into a new market while
insulating Colt's from lawsuits filed by cities against firearms makers to recoup
costs of gun violence, Diaz said.
Colt's has been named in several of the lawsuits, including one filed by the city of
Bridgeport.
"This is sort of a way of cleaning up its image ... and staking out its future," he
said. "This is a cold, calculated decision to survive."
The creation of iColt is part of the company's move toward reducing its role in
producing handguns for the consumer market, the Journal reported.
Citing internal company documents, the Journal said Colt's will focus more
narrowly on production of military small arms, an area the company has
emphasized over the past two years.
Since its bailout by New York financiers Donald Zilkha and John Rigas in 1994,
Colt's has secured some important U.S. military contracts for its M-16 line of
rifles, among other weapons. Colt's also has acquired Saco Defense Corp., a
smaller maker of military arms.
Zilkha and Rigas have said in the past they would consider abandoning handgun
manufacturing as a way of minimizing their exposure to lawsuits.
The commercial handgun segment of Colt's business produces about 30 percent
of revenue but a larger share of profit, because margins are greater in that segment
than in military sales, according to documents cited by the Journal.
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Colt's Manufacturing Co. plans to create a
separate company to produce its high-tech "smart gun," a weapon that can only be
fired by an authorized user, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Known as iColt, the new company could help distance the gun maker from the
controversy surrounding the new weapon, which some gun advocates call a
concession to firearm foes and some antigun lobbyists view as a hollow gesture
toward weapon safety.
Steven Sliwa, president and chief executive of Colt's, will head the spin-off
company. Retired Gen. William Keys, a Colt's board member, will take over the
remaining core business, focusing on military small arms.
Sliwa could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Several messages were left
at his office and the office of Colt's spokesman Richard Esposito.
The smart gun looks like an ordinary weapon and contains a tiny radio
transmitter. The shooter must wear a transponder, which fits in a ring or bracelet,
to operate the trigger.
Colt's, with the help of a $500,000 federal research grant, is the closest of several
gun manufacturers to production, though Sliwa has said the finished product is
still years away.
Some gun makers and owners maintain the smart guns are too smart for their own
good. On its Internet Web site, Beretta USA calls the technology "undeveloped
and unproven."
In particular, Beretta said in a policy statement, smart gun technology could
erroneously lead gunowners to believe their weapons are child- and
accident-proof. Experiments have shown the ID bracelets don't always
communicate with the sensors; owners of multiple weapons might be required to
wear an armful of such bracelets, Beretta said.
Opponents of handguns argue that the technology is wrongly viewed as a
panacea.
Tom Diaz, a policy analyst with the Washington-based Violence Policy Center,
said iColt will ensure the gun maker, which has struggled out of bankruptcy since
1992, continues to receive government subsidies.
The smart gun will not limit gun use, but will tap into a new market while
insulating Colt's from lawsuits filed by cities against firearms makers to recoup
costs of gun violence, Diaz said.
Colt's has been named in several of the lawsuits, including one filed by the city of
Bridgeport.
"This is sort of a way of cleaning up its image ... and staking out its future," he
said. "This is a cold, calculated decision to survive."
The creation of iColt is part of the company's move toward reducing its role in
producing handguns for the consumer market, the Journal reported.
Citing internal company documents, the Journal said Colt's will focus more
narrowly on production of military small arms, an area the company has
emphasized over the past two years.
Since its bailout by New York financiers Donald Zilkha and John Rigas in 1994,
Colt's has secured some important U.S. military contracts for its M-16 line of
rifles, among other weapons. Colt's also has acquired Saco Defense Corp., a
smaller maker of military arms.
Zilkha and Rigas have said in the past they would consider abandoning handgun
manufacturing as a way of minimizing their exposure to lawsuits.
The commercial handgun segment of Colt's business produces about 30 percent
of revenue but a larger share of profit, because margins are greater in that segment
than in military sales, according to documents cited by the Journal.
