Colt suspends production of AR-15 for civilian market By PAT EATON-ROBBSeptember 19, 2019 WEST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Gun-maker Colt is suspending its production of rifles for the civilian market including the popular AR-15, the company said Thursday in a shift it attributed to changes in consumer demand and a market already saturated with similar weapons. The company said it will focus instead on fulfilling contracts with military and police customers for rifles. “The fact of the matter is that over the last few years, the market for modern sporting rifles has experienced significant excess manufacturing capacity,” Colt’s chief executive officer, Dennis Veilleux, said in a written statement. “Given this level of manufacturing capacity, we believe there is adequate supply for modern sporting rifles for the foreseeable future.” Veilleux said the company, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2016, remains committed to the Second Amendment. He said the company is expanding its lines of pistols and revolvers. Despite a national debate on gun control, Colt’s decision seems driven by business considerations rather than politics, said Adam Winkler, a gun policy expert at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. FBI statistics show more than 2.3 million people applied for background checks to purchase guns in August, up from just over 1.8 million in July. Those applications, the best available statistic from tracking gun sales, has have been rising steadily, with a slight decline after Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, something call the “Trump slump.” Gun sales usually go up when guy buyers feel their access to such weapons are being threatened, Winkler said. “Given these sales and the history of Colt being a completely disorganized, dysfunctional company that goes into bankruptcy and can’t keep anything going properly, my assumption is that this is a business decision that is being driven by their own business problems,” he said. Still, Winkler said the company’s decision risks alienating and angering its remaining customer base. “We’ve seen in the past that when gun manufacturers are viewed to have given in to gun-safety advocates, gun owners will boycott them and really hurt their business,” he said. “If they think a company like Colt is disrespecting their identity or giving in to the other side, Colt’s likely going to see serious damage to its other firearms brands too.” The debate on gun control has focused in particular on assault-style rifles like AR-15s that have been used in mass shootings. Democratic presidential candidate and former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, whose hometown of El Paso was the site of a shooting in August left 22 people dead, has been pushing for mandatory rifle buybacks over the last few weeks. “Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47, and we’re not going to allow it to be used against your fellow Americans anymore,” O’Rourke, a said during a Democratic presidential debate this month. The parents of a young woman killed in the 2017 Las Vegas massacre filed a wrongful death lawsuit in July against Colt and seven other gun manufacturers, along with gun shops in Nevada and Utah, arguing their weapons are designed to be easily modified to fire like automatic weapons. In Connecticut, gun-maker Remington is facing a lawsuit involving liability for the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in which a Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle used to kill 20 first graders and six educators on Dec. 14, 2012. ___ https://apnews.com/fbdf5e5f6d654332bbedfaffe3663154
I call bullshit on Colt. While there are plenty of alternatives for their civilian AR's at around half the price, those alternative do not carry the Colt mystique, nor are they typically full mil spec, an important cache element for their buyers. In any period of shortage for AR's, like during the Obama panic, Colts are the first to go out of stock. They are seen by many as the gold standard of AR's, unless you are prepared to spend thousands. Unless they are just totally inept in running their business, as suggested by the guy in the article, I refuse to believe this was purely a business decision. It was either a craven attempt to curry favor with the anti gun democrats, or it was a decision taken out of fear of lawsuits, etc. I agree with the UCLA professor that it is a risky move that could totally alienate the dwindling civilian customer base for their other products, which frankly, are nothing special and more or less outdated.
Rumor has it Trump's pulling a fast one and threatening to pull military contracts if they don't comply. He's been trying to bully most other manufacturers so wouldn't surprise me.
Colt lost the M16 and M4 contract to FN a few years ago. Their total SA output of M4s has dropped 60% since then due to saturation and loss of the contract. Apparently few are interested in Colt since the contract loss. They also lost the small MARSOC 1911 contract as the early series frames were cracking and the Cerakote finish didn’t last.
Rumor------HAHAHAHAHAHA-----that is bascially what CNN and MSNBC and you call news each and every day.
%% COLT has certainly made some great guns; + went bankrupt also. Colt Gold cup + King Cobra.... may not be enough to make a company.I dont own a plastic based gun; except my RGR stainless steel . 22 pistol has some plastic. I was wondering how many failures the Cerakote had; good points.
I have one of the MARSOC Cerakote guns, but the Custom Shop, not one the decommed mil-guns that found their way to gunbroker. Great 1911, but I prefer SVI and STI. The gun looks great with the worn Cerakote finish from the models I've seen. Colt beefed-up the frame rails so there were no more failures. The Marines used them in competitions against the other branches but stopped carrying them as they would lose the comps due to such frequent mag-changes while shooting.
It just occurred to me that Colt's suspension of AR-pattern rifles is a acting on a prediction of DEM control of the Senate in 2020 and an AWB in 2021. Ramping-up production of 1911s and revolvers.