page_title: Colt AR-15
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Colt AR-15 / History
caption_attribution_description: English: 1973 Colt AR-15 SP1 Sporter rifle
context_page_description: The Colt AR-15 is a lightweight, 5.56×45mm, magazine-fed, gas-operated semi-automatic rifle. The "AR” stands for ArmaLite Rifle. It was designed to be manufactured with extensive use of aluminum alloys and synthetic materials. Colt was but no longer is marketing to civilian customers and is presently only marketing to law-enforcement customers, due to oversaturation in the civilian market. Colt's Manufacturing Company currently uses the AR-15 trademark for its line of semi-automatic AR-15 rifles.
context_section_description: Due to financial problems, and limitations in terms of manpower and production capacity, ArmaLite sold the ArmaLite Rifle-15, abbreviated AR-15 design and the AR-15 trademark along with the ArmaLite AR-10 to Colt's Manufacturing Company in 1959. Colt started selling the semi-automatic version of the M16 rifle as the Colt AR-15 in 1964. The first mass production version was the Colt AR-15 Sporter, in .223 Remington, with a 20-inch barrel and issued with 5-round magazines. Over the decades, Colt has made many different types of AR-15 rifle and carbine models, including the AR-15, AR-15A2, AR-15A3, AR-15A4, and many other models.
  Although the sale of new AR-15s was banned by the Federal Assault Weapons Ban from 1994 to 2004, Colt and others continued to sell legally compliant versions during that period.On the 20 September 2019 Colt announced that it would no longer produce the AR-15 for private use, due to market saturation. It would still produce the AR-15 for police and military units though.
caption: 1973 Colt AR-15 SP1 rifle with "slab side" lower receiver (lacking raised boss around magazine release button) and original Colt 20-round box magazine
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