Quote:
Originally Posted by clydepepper
……I read an article today on how the AR-15 became so widespread in this country…..
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Who wrote the article?
Did they explain the real reason…..
All military styled rifles have been popular for decades. MOST except for the AR15 were imported from the original manufacturers in their respective countries. In 1989 George Bush stopped importation via executive order. The market had demand so it filled it with the 1 of the few US made rifles left.
The Bush ban blocked Chinese AK-47 and SKS variants, Israeli Galil variants, Finnish Valmet variants as well as the FN FAL from Belgium, Israel, Australia, Brazil and Argentina.
George Bush forced companies to either manufacture guns wholly in the US or import demilled parts kits to be rebuilt with a minimum number of US parts in their remanufacture.
The marketing angle was simply a demand being fought over by the myriad of US manufacturers wanting more market share. Had the Bush ban never happened the AR15 would be a much smaller segment of the US military styled rifle market. Truth be told all the Bush bad did was funnel all the $ into one particular US design and make everything more expensive because it eliminated foreign labor.