| Type of site | Web forum |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Headquarters | Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, United States |
| Owner | 2nd Adventure Group |
| Founder(s) | Edward Avila |
| URL | ar15 |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Users | 10 million (2013) |
| Launched | 1996 (as mail list) |
| Current status | Active |
AR15.com is a firearm-enthusiast web forum founded as a mail list in 1996 and headquartered in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. It migrated to a bulletin board system, then finally a website which the owner called "the largest firearms website in the world", with 10 million users in 2013. The company that owned the website also manufactured AR-15 rifles and was founded in 1996 by Edward Avila, who moved it from Farmington, New York, to Texas after passage of the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) Act in 2013.
The forum was described by Politico as a significant "cyberspace" forum for discussion of the bump stock controversy in 2014. The website was the subject of confusion over a 2020 Canadian government ban on an airsoft gun, leading to a demand by 170,000 petitioners for an apology to gun owners.
It was bought in 2019 by 2nd Adventure Group, a holding company owned by Pete Brownell and Frank Brownell that also owns the online retailer Brownells.
Removal from servers
The site's Domain Name System (DNS) registrar, GoDaddy, removed the site from its servers in 2021 following the U.S. Capitol attack. GoDaddy told Axios that the action was due to the site's failure to moderate content "that both promoted and encouraged violence".
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, in a message from its president, condemned what it called the "de-platforming of gun sites" as a "dark harbinger" for discussion of controversial issues and an "indiscriminate silencing of opinion and debate".
As of January 2021, the DNS registrar for the AR15.com domain is Epik.
References
- ^ Swaine, Jon (2013). "Automatic for the people: America's obsession with automatic weapons". The Daily Telegraph. London, UK.
- Stephanie Clifford, Shop Owners Report Rise in Firearm Sales as Buyers Fear Possible New Laws, New York Times (December 22, 2012).
- ^ Melody Burri (December 8, 2013). "Business blames SAFE Act for move from Farmington". Daily Messenger. Canandaigua, New York.
- ^ Michael Lee (January 11, 2021). "Amazon partner GoDaddy boots gun site from its servers". Washington Times.
- Valentine, Matt (December 1, 2014), "The Gunfight in Cyberspace", Politico
- Snyder, Jesse (13 May 2020). "Trudeau's gun ban appeared to target coffee and a toy;Confusion Conservatives want ban lifted, apology for gun owners". National Post. Ontario, Canada. p. A.6.
- F Riehl (5 June 2019). "ARFcom Interest Purchased by Brownells' Holding Company, 2nd Adventure Group". Ammoland Shooting Sports News. Ammoland, Inc. Retrieved January 20, 2021.
- "GoDaddy removes gun forum website AR15.com from its servers". Fox News. January 16, 2021 – via Yahoo! News.
- Lachlan Markay (January 13, 2021). "GOP digital operatives aim to avoid "deplatforming"". Axios.
- Bartozzi, Joe (January 15, 2021). "DE-PLATFORMING OF GUN SITES IS A DARK HARBINGER". NSSF official website. National Shooting Sports Foundation.
- ar15.com DNS record via WHOIS, accessed January 16, 2021
- Allyn, Bobby (February 8, 2021). "'Lex Luthor Of The Internet': Meet The Man Keeping Far-Right Websites Alive". NPR. Archived from the original on 2021-02-09. Retrieved February 9, 2021.