Does “AR” in AR-15 stand for “Assault Rifle”?

Claim:

The “AR” in AR-15 stands for Assault Rifle.

Valuation:

Mass shootings have become worrying regular occurrence There was also heated debate in the United States about the weapon used on many of the worst incidents of the last decade, AR-15 firearms and their derivatives. Discussions about guns in America tend to be politically charged, as is the terminology that surrounds them.

For example, a common misconception about AR-15 firearms is that the “AR” in the name stands for “assault rifle.” It doesn’t. AR stands for ArmaLite Rifle, reflecting the company name (ArmaLite) of the original manufacturer of the weapon. Although ArmaLite sold The rifle’s design to Colt in 1959 retained the term “AR-15” and acts as a catch-all for similar weapons, although different models with different manufacturers have different names.

ArmaLite developed the gun in the 1950s with the original intention of using it by the military, but did not have much success selling it before passing it on to Colt. As NPR reports, Colt had widespread success selling the M-16 automatic to the military, which deployed troops in Vietnam. Colt produced a semi-automatic, civilian version of this weapon and marketed it as the “AR-15”.

“When Colt’s patents for the AR-15 expired in the 1970s, other manufacturers began making similar models,” NPR reported. “These gun manufacturers gave the guns their own names, but the AR-15’s popularity made it a generic term for all types of AR-15 style rifles.”