Fuzzy on the Original AR-15

[Devonai]

My Google-Fu is failing me, maybe someone can help. I was under the impression that the AR-15, whether by Armalite or licensed to Colt, was available on the civilian market before the US Army adopted the M-16 in 1964. Is this incorrect?

[RoadKingLarry]

I'm not positive but that is also my understanding. If not before then at least more or less at the same time.

[Perd Hapley]

It is indeed shrouded in piles of misinformation and propaganda.

[charby]

IIRC ArmaLite sold to Colt in 1959, and Colt shortly after started selling the AR-15

[Angel Eyes]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-15_style_rifle#Comparison_to_military_versions

The semi-automatic civilian AR-15 was introduced by Colt in 1963.

[griz]

No, the AR-15 was sold by Satan because Saturday Night Specials were not killing people in enough numbers.

[230RN]

I'm curious as to what prompted the question.  It sounds like one of those horribly deadly "military" rifles versus the modest and kinder, gentler "civilian" rifle issues.


Terry

[WLJ]

In a highly simplified nutshell
* Armalite designs the ARmalite-15 a select fire rifle as a scaled down version of the AR-10 due to input from the mil.
* Fairchild the owners of Arnalite sells the AR-15 design to Colt to raise cash.
* Colt makes a few odd changes and starts selling the AR-15 first to Malaya and then the US military as the Colt 601 Armalite AR-15
* After seeing what the little rifle can do in actual service the military formally adopts the AR-15 as the M-16 at which point Colt drops the AR-15 label for the mil but retains the rights to it.
* Colt starts selling a semi-auto version of the AR-15, the SP-1, on the civilian market. At this point Colt started referring to the semi-auto versions as the AR-15 and the mil select fire versions as the M-16 (rifle) and then the later shortened carbine as the M-4. This where the confusion on AR-15 vs M-16/4 label starts

[Perd Hapley]

One thing I've looked for, but not found documentation on: what year were the M16/M16A1 formally adopted as the general issue service rifles?

[Devonai]

I'm curious as to what prompted the question.  It sounds like one of those horribly deadly "military" rifles versus the modest and kinder, gentler "civilian" rifle issues.

Nothing so languid, just a chicken-and-egg discussion on Reddit.

Thanks for all the info, everyone.

[WLJ]

The semi auto version is a variant of the AR-15 as is the M-16 and is actually further removed from the original AR-15 design than the M-16 is.
But what do I know? I just get tried of the whole AR-15 is not a select fire weapon argument many seem to be fond of. I understand the point they're trying to make but it's historically incorrect. I wish they would use a more correct argument.