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.” “The mass shootings are probably making the company a little bit brand-sensitive,” Mr. 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. 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. The AR-15, a military-style weapon, has been used in several recent mass shootings, including in Newtown, Conn. For this purpose it is modified with several holes drilled in the side, which are used to pin spacers in place to hold the smaller 9mm magazine in the standard 5.56mm magazine well.“If there’s market demand,” he said, “I’m sure there are other companies with the capacity to fill it.”
#Colt ar 15 sporter full#
The full fence lower (both A1 and A2) is also the receiver used on Colt's 9mm SMG. However, due to the difficulty in identifying them from a distance and the fact that different manufacturers use slightly different designs (such as strengthening around only the front push pin or omitting the selector markings on the right side of the weapon), these have been treated as one variant for the purpose of identification.
The design of this lower was upgraded with the adoption of the M16A2 featuring strengthening around the front and rear receiver push pins and fire selector marking on the right side of the receiver. It can be identified by the raised fence around the magazine release button on the right side of the weapon which is designed to lessen the chances of accidentally releasing the magazine. The full fence lower is the standard receiver used on all AR-15s since the M16A1. The preferred term for identification, be it the model name or simply the model number, is highlighted in bold.
Due to the large number of companies that make AR-15 pattern rifles that are nearly indistinguishable from the original variants, all rifles should be identified using Colt terminology in the absences of any information to the contrary, such as unique parts or visible receiver markings.
This is not a complete list of all variants produced by Colt, and only contains those variants that have appeared in media. This page is intended as a guide to identify the various Colt manufactured M16 variants and derivatives.