Goodbye Colt?

The M1911 45 Caliber Colt Pistol

My. My.  Colt Firearms files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  My reaction?  Halleluiah and Damn! simultaneously. I had a familial connection to Colt, but I despair at Colt's bad management decisions.  Years ago back in the 70s, my uncle in law, then a Colt vice president, took me on a tour of the Python manufacturing plant in Connecticut. It was a typical American manufacturing facility, and it was a joy to watch those iconic wheel guns being created.  The Python's a huge, heavy revolver, by the way, and is not intended for concealed carry, which is what drives the civilian handgun market today.  More about that later.  The list of Colt owners reads like Who's Who in America.  And many people don't know that President Ronald Reagan carried his Colt .38 revolver every single day in his briefcase.  But Colt did some stupid things in its corporate lifetime, and one of them was to rely too heavily on military contracts, which they lost 2014, and subsequently led to their fiscal failures. Other stupid things Colt's management did were to get on the anti-gun bandwagon in the 80s and 90s, which alienated much of their intended civilian market, and the other was to pretend that manufacturing was still conducted the way it was in the 30s.  That is, their facility was located in a northern state with one of the highest confiscatory tax rates in the nation, bleeding profits.  The other was employing union members, who simply weren't engaged in the company's success, but simply punched a time card.  Oh, well.  Lesson learned.  Maybe an enterprising group will take it over, keep the name and retool with modern production capability, and produce a weapon that is consistent with today's needs, and in keeping with competitive pricing.

Colt SAA Peacemaker

Now that Texas has enacted an open carry law, civilians can carry their sidearms in full view.  I'm a supporter of those laws, because an armed society is a polite society, and we need some civility in society right now.  And yes, open carry gives some market appeal back to those heavy wheel guns that Colt loves to make.  And as to pricing, it was Samuel Colt who made the reliable, effective and low cost firearms for the common man.  Hopefully that vision returns to the Colt management.  It was later said of the Colt single action army revolver of the late 1800s - the iconic gun that won the West -  that "God made all men, but Samuel Colt made all men equal." 

I still want one.