The Colt Armalite Rifle-15 Sporter hit the market in the early 1960s as the first civilian version of the military’s M16 rifle. “We listen to our customers,” the Colt executive, Paul Spitale, told Shooting Illustrated.Ĭolt is the manufacturer most closely associated with the AR-15, a lightweight, semiautomatic weapon. A spokeswoman for the RSR Group declined to comment.Īnd last week, a Colt marketing executive told the National Rifle Association’s publication Shooting Illustrated that the company had seen “a pretty sharp decline in rifle sales.” The news that Colt would stop producing rifles for consumers was reported last week in an industry blog, The Truth About Guns, which cited an email the RSR Group, a firearms distributor, had sent to retailers saying Colt had informed it of the policy change. “They’re probably feeling a kind of pressure or heat that manufacturers in other parts of the country may not be.” What I would suggest is that you go handle each one of them and see how they fit in your hands and if the stock feels right to you. All 3 makers produce good firearms so don’t sell any of them short. “The mass shootings are probably making the company a little bit brand-sensitive,” Mr. Answer (1 of 8): The word best is relative to the user. He noted that Colt was based in Hartford, Conn., not far from the site of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Lytton said, the public pressure may have influenced the company.
While Colt has framed it as an economic decision, Mr. Colt, a private company, does not list sales for its sporting rifles on its website. The financial effect of the decision is unclear. Veilleux emphasized that the company, whose products are available at more than 4,000 dealers across the country, would continue to manufacture handguns for the consumer market. After a shooting in August at one of its stores in El Paso, Walmart said it would stop selling ammunition that could be used in military-style assault rifles.Ĭolt did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday. So cheap or expensive, 5.56 NATO or not, household name brand or specialty company we will take any and all suggestions for Best AR-15 as long as it is a catalog or factory stock model. Major retailers and other businesses linked to the gun industry have faced growing public pressure to take steps to curb gun violence in response to recent mass shootings. If you think a 10K AR-15 is the best, throw it out there The only problem is you need a rational argument for how most other people could afford it or why they should save up for it. The AR-15, a military-style weapon, has been used in several recent mass shootings, including in Newtown, Conn. “If there’s market demand,” he said, “I’m sure there are other companies with the capacity to fill it.”