Concept
An AR-15–style rifle is any lightweight semi-automatic rifle based on or similar to the Colt AR-15 design. The Colt model removed the selective fire feature of its predecessor, the original ArmaLite AR-15, itself a scaled-down derivative of the AR-10 design by Eugene Stoner. ArmaLite sold the patent and trademarks for both to Colt's Manufacturing Company in 1959 after the military rejected the design in favor of the M14. After most of the patents for the Colt AR-15 expired in 1977, many firearm manufacturers began to produce copies of the rifle under various names. While the patents are expired, Colt has retained the trademark to the AR-15 name and is the sole manufacturer able to label their firearms as such. From 1994 to 2004, the Federal Assault Weapons Ban restricted the sale of the Colt AR-15 and some derivatives in the United States, although it did not affect rifles with fewer listed features. After the phrase "modern sporting rifles", to be used synonymously with the AR-15 style, was coined in 2009 by the US National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), a firearms trade association, it was quickly adopted by much of the industry. Beginning in the 2010s, AR-15–style rifles became one of the "most beloved and most vilified rifles" in the United States, according to The New York Times; the rifles have gained infamy due in part to their use in high-profile mass shootings. Promoted as "America's rifle" by the National Rifle Association, their popularity is partially attributable to active restrictions, or proposals to ban or restrict them. Thus, they are emblematic as being on the frontline of the debate over U.S. gun control. The "AR" in AR-15 stands for "ArmaLite Rifle", and "AR-15" is most-commonly used to refer only to the civilian semi-automatic variants of the rifle which lack the fully automatic function. A common misconception is that "AR" is an abbreviation for "assault rifle" or "automatic rifle", perhaps because of the weapon's inclusion in the Federal Assault Weapons Ban in 1994, or because the ArmaLite AR-15 was originally designed to replace the M14 rifle in the Vietnam War.
