PHOENIX The Colt revolver, a historic remnant from the shoot-em-up days of the old West, is now Arizona's official gun.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on Thursday signed a bill into law that makes the Colt Single Action Army Revolver the state's firearm, making Arizona only the second in the nation to have such a designation.
Brewer signed the bill without comment, and her spokesman could not immediately be reached.
The Colt revolver, made popular in the 1800s, was a common weapon carried by the likes of Bat Masterson, Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok, according to "The Book of Colt Firearms", by R. L. Wilson.
Production first ran from 1872 through 1941 and then again from 1955.
The measure landed on the Republican governor's desk after narrow approval by the state House last week in the waning hours of the legislative session.
Opponents said the designation was ill-timed, coming as the state deals with the fallout from a massive budget crisis and only months after a mass shooting in Tucson.
A Navajo Nation lawmaker also strongly objected to honoring a gun that killed his people and so many others during its long history in the American West.
Last month, Utah made the Browning model M1911 automatic pistol its official gun.
(Reporting by David Schwartz; Editing by Tim Gaynor and Jerry Norton)
WASHINGTON The U.S. Justice Department will dispatch a team to Turkey in coming days to pursue allegations by the Turkish government of criminal activity by Fethullah Gulen, Bloomberg news reported on Friday, citing an Obama administration official.
MILWAUKEE The African-American man whose shooting death by police over the weekend sparked riots in Milwaukee was shot once in the chest and once in the right arm, the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's office said on Friday.
Jay Fishman, chairman and former chief executive of property and casualty insurer Travelers Cos Inc, died on Friday.