![]() ![]() ![]() The National Rifle Association and other industry allies were focused on promoting traditional rifles and handguns. ![]() The industry’s biggest trade shows banished the AR-15 to the back. Gun executives doubted many buyers would want to spend their money on one. It seemed like overkill for home defense. troops in the Vietnam War, where the weapon earned a new name: the M16.īut few gunmakers saw a semiautomatic version of the rifle - with its shrouded barrel, pistol grip and jutting ammunition magazine - as a product for ordinary people. “An outstanding weapon with phenomenal lethality,” an internal Pentagon report raved. The rugged, powerful weapon was originally designed as a soldiers’ rifle in the late 1950s. The AR-15 wasn’t supposed to be a bestseller. For this reason, we refer to the rifle broadly as the AR-15 in this series. While Colt still holds the trademark, “AR-15” has become a ubiquitous term for a popular style of gas-operated, magazine-fed semiautomatic rifles. The patent expired, leaving many companies to produce their own weapons, commonly called AR-style rifles. Colt acquired the AR-15 patent and trademark from Armalite in 1959. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |