WEST HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT – A military-style weapon that has reportedly been used in several recent mass shootings won’t be in production, the company that makes them announced.
Colt, which manufactures the AR-15 assault rifle, among others, released a statement announcing it was suspending production of AR-15’s and other sporting rifles for the civilian market.
According to Colt President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis Veilleux:
There have been numerous articles recently published about Colt’s participation in the commercial rifle market. Some of these articles have incorrectly stated or implied that Colt is not committed to the consumer market. We want to assure you that Colt is committed to the Second Amendment, highly values its customers and continues to manufacture the world’s finest quality firearms for the consumer market.
The fact of the matter is that over the last few years, the market for modern sporting rifles has experienced significant excess manufacturing capacity. Given this level of manufacturing capacity, we believe there is adequate supply for modern sporting rifles for the foreseeable future.
On the other hand, our warfighters and law enforcement personnel continue to demand Colt rifles and we are fortunate enough to have been awarded significant military and law enforcement contracts. Currently, these high-volume contracts are absorbing all of Colt’s manufacturing capacity for rifles. Colt’s commitment to the consumer markets, however, is unwavering. We continue to expand our network of dealers across the country and to supply them with expanding lines of the finest quality 1911s and revolvers.
At the end of the day, we believe it is good sense to follow consumer demand and to adjust as market dynamics change. Colt has been a stout supporter of the Second Amendment for over 180 years, remains so, and will continue to provide its customers with the finest quality firearms in the world.
Reportedly, there are upwards of 11 million of these assault rifles on the streets. Here is a list of mass shootings in the U.S. that featured AR-15-style rifles during the last 35 years, courtesy of the Stanford Geospatial Center and Stanford Libraries and USA TODAY research:
- Feb. 24, 1984: Tyrone Mitchell, 28, used an AR-15, a Stoeger 12-gauge shotgun and a Winchester 12-gauge shotgun to kill two and wound 12 at 49th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles before killing himself.
- Oct. 7, 2007: Tyler Peterson, 20, used an AR-15 to kill six and injure one at an apartment in Crandon, Wis., before killing himself.
- June 20, 2012: James Eagan Holmes, 24, used an AR-15-style .223-caliber Smith and Wesson rifle with a 100-round magazine, a 12-gauge Remington shotgun and two .40-caliber Glock semi-automatic pistols to kill 12 and injure 58 at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.
- Dec. 14, 2012: Adam Lanza, 20, used an AR-15-style rifle, a .223-caliber Bushmaster, to kill 27 people — his mother, 20 students and six teachers — in Newtown, Conn., before killing himself.
- June 7, 2013: John Zawahri, 23, used an AR-15-style .223-caliber rifle and a .44-caliber Remington revolver to kill five and injure three at a home in Santa Monica, Calif., before he was killed.
- March 19, 2015: Justin Fowler, 24, used an AR-15 to kill one and injure two on a street in Little Water, N.M., before he was killed.
- May 31, 2015: Jeffrey Scott Pitts, 36, used an AR-15 and .45-caliber handgun to kill two and injure two at a store in Conyers, Ga., before he was killed.
- Oct. 31, 2015: Noah Jacob Harpham, 33, used an AR-15, a .357-caliber revolver and a 9mm semi-automatic pistol to kill three on a street in Colorado Springs, Colo., before he was killed.
- Dec. 2, 2015: Syed Rizwyan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, 28 and 27, used two AR-15-style, .223-caliber Remington rifles and two 9 mm handguns to kill 14 and injure 21 at his workplace in San Bernardino, Calif., before they were killed.
- June 12, 2016: Omar Mateen, 29, used an AR-15 style rifle (a Sig Sauer MCX), and a 9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol to kill 49 people and injure 50 at an Orlando nightclub before he was killed.
- Oct. 1, 2017: Stephen Paddock, 64, used a stockpile of guns including an AR-15 to kill 58 people and injure hundreds at a music festival in Las Vegas before he killed himself.
- Nov. 5, 2017: Devin Kelley, 26, used an AR-15 style Ruger rifle to kill 26 people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, before he was killed.
- Feb. 14, 2018: Police say Nikolas Cruz, 19, used an AR-15-style rifle to kill at least 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
I am happy to see that people understand the word “assault” and rifle or gun do NOT go hand in hand.
The Common Law definition of “Assault”, is an intentional act by one person that creates an apprehension in another of an imminent harmful or offensive contact.
Any kind of gun, club, knife, or a raised fist can be “used” for an assault.
Killing or harming anyone is assault and that motivation starts in the individual. The focus should be on the motivation and not the weapon used. When we start addressing the cause of “motivation” instead of “assault weapons” we can begin to stop shootings!
there is no such thing as an assault rifle. never was. never ever was.more biased from shit for brains here.
did colt actually saymilitary style weapon when describing an ar15? i doubt very much that they did. it isnt a military style weapon. the ar15 predates the m16 which predates the modern m4. both designs borrowed heavily from the previously invented CIVILIAN FIREARM the ar15. see the military has civilian style weapons. you people that dont know basics like that but want to have an opinion are officially allowed to step out of this conversation for good. go get a glitter spice cappa gaycinolatte and worry about how illegals are being treated after commiting felony crimes against the american people.
Why is sporting rifle in qoutes like they are not sporting rifles? youre a loser. biased and mentally deficient. you should stop playing journalist, loser. nobody was buying colts anymore lol. thats the real reason. they are just dumping something that didnt work for them because other people started doing it better and innovating. colt is a dying horse and has been for years, across the board. this move is just them trying to virtue signal, but is confusing because your customer base… whats left of it is going to drop an anti gun gun manufactuer. rifles are used in less than 1% of “gun crime”. bicycles kill more americans every year than firearms and suicides and inner city violence are the major contributing factors to those inflated number you read. the real numbers are reasonable. youre not going to stop suicidal people from killing themselves gun or no gun. just shows their true selfish nature when they use a gun cuz most times they borrow orsteal it, the other side of the coin is african americans between 14-45 love shooting eachother, take the guns away they will use knives and clubs. guns dont make black men kill more black men each year than any other thing on the planet. those events should not be counted in the national average, its population control and nobody worth a damn is being shot. less than 1% of the population is commiting an outstanding majority of violent crime. 13% is commiting 50% of the violent crime. instead of hail things like a gun company on its way out of business and blaming a gun for societys problems…. maybe we need to start blaming rap for the inner citiy youths rampant ignorance and general uselessness? how about we blame twenty some years of riddlin and adderall? how about we look for the things that actually cause the problem before we keep trying to ban guns like once guns are banned ccrazy people will stop trying to off the rest of us or themselves, yep once guns poof out of existence everyones mental health is gonna go ahead and be 199% no doubt about it. if you think that youre a moron and a loser. guns are good. people are shit.
Deleting comments again I see. My subscription is running out also!
good
ya, censorship and biased articles combined with suppressing public knowledge in an effort to force people to subscribe to this shit rag. this guy has all the journalistic integrity of cnn or the new york post. matt is just like his heros, a useless liar nobody can trust. like making the story about two people shot in town a sub only thing? cmon as*hole. that is important public knowledge, if you cant see how youre more worthless than anyone thought. you could have a chance no matter how unlikely to help someone avoid or identify the persons running around shooting firearms about recklessly over dumb african american disputes about women or dope. instead youre such a loser, such an impotent piece of shit such a little girl that you need to see your sub numbers go up because it strokes your pathetic ego that you think it is ok to suppress important public knowledge. allen is one of the few people that comments on here that isnt just trolling your pathetically designed website that looks like it was made on xpages 17 years ago lol. you suck at everything. from life to journalism to basic building and yard maintenance. just give up.
Big deal. Lots of other brands out there that are cheaper and work as good or better.
it is one of the few names anti or non gunners know off the bat so to them it sounds like it matters. you are right, colt had an ok product and charged to much for it. now ars run so much lighter and with such a higher quality build standard at way less than $1200. they put themselves in this corner, just because your founder created the 1911 does not mean your company will outlast the 1911. bye bye.
According to the FBI, 1,604 people were killed by “knives and cutting instruments” and 374 were killed by “rifles” in 2016.
This is the most recent year that I could find, that they had all the data correlated for.
Somebody has to make a decision, and Colt made theirs. There are approximately 250 million registered vehicles in the United States. Approximately 30 people are killed everyday in drunk driver crashes, which comes out to about 10,000 deaths a year, courtesy of NHTSA.