Colt To Stop Producing AR-15 Rifles For Civilians Due To ‘Adequate’ Supply

Colt will halt its manufacture of AR-15 rifles for civilians due to sufficient supply of this weaponry in the market. The company emphasized that the halt in their supply was solely a result of the working of market forces and nothing more.

The halt in production comes in the wake of recent mass shootings which involved the use of these rifles by gunmen leading to many deaths and injuries in the U.S. Advocates of gun control as well as Presidential candidate of the Democrats, Beto O’Rourke has vowed to eliminate the AR-15s and AK-47 from public circulation.

 CEO and President of the company, Dennis Veilleux emphasized that production of the high-powered weaponry will continue for supply to the military and police forces in the country given the fact that there has been a surplus in the manufacturing capacity for these rifles over the past few years.

In addition to Colt there are several other gun manufacturers producing rifles similar to the AR-15s and hence, from the business point of view opting out of the civilian market was a wise move undertaken by Colt, remarked Mark Oliva, the gun owners advocacy group spokesman. The market for this large-capacity weapon was highly competitive he said and continued that Colt can now focus on the manufacture of these semi-automatic rifles for the law enforcers and military personnel and continue doing what they are best known for.

Colt had purchased the AR-15 name trademark from the original producer ArmaLite. Currently, the number of these rifles and the look alikes owned by American civilians has touched a huge 16 million as per estimates of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

The sales page on Colt’s website nonetheless had many AR-15 rifles listed but they had the tag of being ‘out of stock’. The company emphasized about its strong support to the Second Amendment notwithstanding this move on their part.