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The Future of Colt… as Colt Sees It

“Our legacy for the twenty first century will rest on how well we lay the groundwork today for creating a company that continues to be responsive to consumer needs, and depends as much on inventiveness and innovation as it does on technology. We are striving to meet this challenge and to guarantee a secure place for Colt in the pages of history as they unfold in the decades to come.”

2007 CATALOG, COLT’S

MANUFACTURING COMPANY LLC

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Since Samuel Colt opened his Hartford Armory, Colt’s (hereinafter referred to simply as Colt) has always operated with the kind of double vision that many companies attempt and few actually achieve. More than 150 years ago, the boy genius Sam Colt realized that a successful and long-lasting American firearms company would need to serve both the military and the civilian marketplace.

Thus, Colt produced arms for every market segment. It built deringers and pocket pistols for personal protection and the famous Single Action Army or “Peacemaker” for military and civilian use. Its management set the stage for a century of innovation by dozens of manufacturers worldwide when it agreed to produce John M. Browning’s 1911 automatic pistol and proceeded to manufacture the Gatling gun and the Thompson submachine gun. In the modern era it co-designed the remarkable M16, the staple of U.S. military small arms for almost half a century.