Home AR-15 Smyth Busters: What Does the "AR" in AR-15 Stand For?

Smyth Busters: What Does the "AR" in AR-15 Stand For?

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In their continual fight against the Dark Triad of ignorance, misinformation, and erroneous assumptions, Brownells Gun Techs Caleb and Steve set the record straight on a common point of confusion: What does the “AR” in AR-15 really stand for? Is it Assault Rifle? Army Rifle? Automatic Rifle? Wrong on all counts! “AR” stands for Armalite Rifle, developed by Eugene Stoner when he was chief engineer of the Armalite Corporation. (After developing the rifle, Armalite sold the AR-15 design to Colt in 1962.) The mainstream news media, either through carelessness or intentional distortion, often gets the meaning of “AR” wrong. An “assault rifle” must be capable of selective full-auto fire. The U.S. military’s M4 and M16 are assault rifles, but the semi-auto only civilian AR-15 is NOT. So the “assault rifle” myth is definitively BUSTED. The “AR” in AR-15 stands for Armalite Rifle.

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34 COMMENTS

  1. If I’m not mistaken Eugene Stoner actually developed the rifle on his own and then sold it to Armalite even though at the time he was an engineer employed by Armalite. He went on to develop the Stoner weapons system which was used by Naval Special Warfare primarily and was built by Knights Armament….who is still building it today.

  2. Amalite Rifle Assault Rifle?

    That is a stupid name why did they just not call it the ARAR-15.

    Everyone know how dangerous these 50 caliber guns are.

    Ask all those humdres of thousand of people killed by them per year in states with strong gun control laws.

    Then need to jave some way to track these things as they can shoot 1000 rounds a second and can hold hundreds of rounds in a single box thingy.

    Way to dangerous and needs to be baned

  3. Wrong, AR means Armalite and only Armalite, the AR-17 was a shotgun, so it would not be Armalite Rifle Shotgun! Armalite was a Division of Fairchild and AR was the abbreviation for the Armalite Division. In addition, under Mark Westrom, Armalite imported the AR-24, a 9 mm pistol, once again not an Armalite Rifle Pistol.

  4. What about the myth that the AR15 is as heavy as five large boxes? As well as shoots 50 caliper bullets that are lazier guided at light speed?

    By the way my elder mother who is a Democrat. Stated after holding my AR15. That the lady that said that is out of her mind.

  5. Isn't "Assault Rifle" a term basically derived from AR-15 name to look down on the flashy flimsy aluminum toy(in air quotes)? The term "Battle Rifle" would be used for "proper" rifle cartridge rifle like G3, FAL, M14, except full scale infantry rifle became obsolescent soon after and the "BR" term disappeared

  6. ALL AR-15’s SHOULD be Assault Rifles.
    Not all Assault Rifles are AR-15’s.
    Most AR-15’s haven’t been made by Armalite.
    * The 1934 NFA is, and was a gross infringement on the Second Amendment, as all firearm laws are.

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