This is Colt Firearms CEO Dennis Veilleux (pronounced vay-YOU).
Dennis doesn’t look too happy here, but he should be. After all, he and his company are riding the wave of the latest mass shooting and AR-15’s are flying off the shelf. Colt and Veilleux are shamelessly making a killing off of the public’s insatiable appetite for their “sporting” rifle.
But Colt wasn’t always like this. There was a time when they seemed to actually give a shit about the misuse of their beloved AR-15. Barely 30 years ago, Colt executives decided to stop making the AR-15 after it became the gun of choice among organized crime — specifically drug gangs. “We sense a great concern on the part of the government toward the possible inappropriate misuse of semi-automatic weapons,” then-Colt spokesman Michael Dunn told The New York Times. “We’re responding to that concern.”
William Bennett, then head of the nation’s drug policy, hailed Colt’s decision “an act of civic responsibility” and said he was “confident that our country is better for it.” Barely a year later, and under new leadership, Colt began making the AR-15 again.
So how about it Dennis, can you and Colt perform another “act of civil responsibility,” or will you be too busy counting your blood money?
