After it was determined that the civil market is saturated with the supply of assault rifles, Colt’s Manufacturing Company has decided to suspend production of these high-powered weapons, including the infamous AR-15.
The issue of weapons is a sensitive subject in the nation always, and that was one of the reasons why the company founded in 1836 made it clear that its commitment to the civil market is “unwavering,” as well as to the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects the right to own guns.
Dennis Veilleux, Colt CEO, reported in a statement that “in recent years, the modern sports rifle market has experienced significant excess manufacturing capacity””.
“Given this level of manufacturing capacity, we believe there is an adequate supply of modern sports rifles for the future,” he added.
The news takes over the media when the physical and psychological wounds of shootings such as El Paso (Texas) or Dayton (Ohio) are still fresh.
According to a study conducted using the Mother Jones database of mass shootings in the period 1982-2018, approximately half of those killings employed high-capacity magazines. In six of the ten most deadly mass shootings, semi-automatic rifles such as the AR-15 or similar were used.
Colt’s Manufacturing Company insisted it will continue to produce these rifles for its military and police contracts with the government.
“Our fighters and law enforcement continue to demand Colt rifles and we are fortunate to have received important military and police contracts. Currently, these high-volume contracts are absorbing Colt’s entire rifle manufacturing capacity,” Veilleux said.
The AR-15 assault rifle is the most popular in the United States and has been used in multiple of the recent shootings in the country, such as the Parkland Institute (Florida) in 2018 or the Pulse nightclub in Orlando (Florida) in 2016.
Its commercialization is one of the issues in the ongoing debate on arms control in the country.
As it turned out, Democratic White House pre-candidate Beto O’Rourke made a commitment during a debate last week that if he wins the election he will confiscate AR-15 or AK-47 assault rifles from U.S. homes.
Translated by: José Espinoza
Noticias Newswire
