Colt to Stop Manufacturing AR-15s For Sale to Civilian Market [More]Hey, you don't want Beto's Raiders to be outgunned...
[Via Jess]
SIGNIFICANT UPDATE-- And then there's this:
As Colt has made clear, it believes that “there is adequate supply for modern sporting rifles for the foreseeable future,” and so it is temporarily shifting its production priorities in order to focus on the military side of its business. That’s it. That’s the whole story.[Via Michael G]
It's a purely financial decision.
ReplyDeleteColt won't lower their prices -- it would harm their "better than you" brand -- and so they can't sell their rifles on the civilian market, not when comparable rifles from dozens of other companies cost half as much.
And so they're pulling out of the least-profitable sector of their business. That's a reasonable move...
... at least until all those law enforcement and military contracts come up for renegotiation, and another company can undercut Colt's prices for similar quality, and Colt has nothing to fall back on other than the revolver market (which they largely relinquished to Ruger and S&W ages ago).
I believe Colt's corporate days are numbered, not for any political or SJW stance, but simply for poor management decisions resulting in a failure to adapt to a volatile market.