Dear Armalite

Many Gun Owners emailed you with a serious concern.  You responded in a flippant and asinine manner that shows clear disdain for your main customer, the American Gun Owner.

Dear concerned gun owner,



Third, The manufacturer is not the one you need to convince.


AR Stands for ArmaLite…


Pat Raley

Respectfully, Pat?  Really?  Well then… Allow me to retort.  With all the other AR Manufacturers out there, the American Gun Owner can fully and comfortably get by without giving you any business.  I’m sure New York will reward your loyalty by ordering enough Armalites to keep you in business, because  the rest of us want nothing to do with you if you don’t sort this out pronto.  With all due respect…

Some time after this email went out, the President of Armalite responded on Arfcom:


I think a bit of clarification is in order.













Mark Westrom
ArmaLite Inc.

Okay, after reading Mark’s response a couple times, I’m glad that they didn’t “Recoil” the situation.  I’ll take his explanation at face value.


16 thoughts on “Dear Armalite”

  1. Thanks for posting this. People seem really quick to demand a boycott and I tend to want to give the company a chance to respond or make it right.

  2. I seen this go down on and it didn’t go over as ArmaLite expected and it appears that their little advertisement button was taken down shortly after the president’s reply. Poor choice…just because we are civilians doesn’t mean we face different threats than the police, because we face the exact same threats and require the same protection afforded to the police.

  3. Suggest a slight rewording: “…just because we aren’t cops doesn’t mean…”

    To borrow from Commander Vimes,

    1. A perfect description of the problem with many law enforcement types. Remember when you saw the officer traveling 75 in a 55 zone because He Could……..

  4. The way I read it is they won’t sell an Armalite rifle to me but they will sell it to a cop here in California.

    1. That’s exactly the reading I take from it and why arfcom was full of angry complaints.

      In fact, he goes on to justify it by stating, “we are well familiar with the fact that most rifles serving Police Officers are purchased by the officers themselves…”

      Clearly, Armalite has no problem arming police in states where the population’s right to own those same arms is roundly violated. I don’t see why the distinction of who purchases the rifle matters. Whether selling to officers directly or through their department, LEOs have freedoms that ordinary citizens do not and Armalite is supporting that.

  5. Oh good, Carmolite still sells to those in uniform. You know, because they are fighting the good fight. I can see why civilians would not need them. I mean, they only really have them So they can post pictures on the Internet and shoot varmints with them. I think this is a totally lame explanation. So the staffer thought he was replying to spam? This is why he addressed the email as “concerned gun owner”?

  6. The problem with the United Soviet Socialist Republic of NY (I live in upstate) is that the governor as well as the state legislature is bought and paid for by NYC. (I know, I should move, but the job is key right now). We should try to convince them to stop abridging our rights, but they literally have a larger majority of people that want the government to abridge our rights. (I know, I need to move).
    I am currently enjoying my 17 oz. soda. while smoking indoors with a 10 round magazine (with only 7 rounds in it). They want a nanny state here.

  7. I was looking for an AR10. I’m glad that Mark @ Armalite has convinced me to get a Larue PredatAR instead. Larue stands with their customers.

  8. Let me get this straight at face value. Armalite won’t sell to those nasty entities that infringe on the 2nd amendment, but if any individual in said entity wants an Armalite, they have no problem selling them one. So, the death of a thousand cuts is OK, just no guillotine. If I understand this correctly, it is what I usually refer to as TFBS. Note to Mr. Westrom – you won’t be “supporting” any of my shooting needs.

  9. And fer cryin’ out loud, learn to use the apostrophe correctly. The CEO of a company should know how to use puncuation and/or spell check. Jeez.

  10. Well I’m glad he didn’t double down on the stupid like recoil. If that staffer had half a brain when they see spam mail like that comming in and have to reply to it anyway they can always make a word doc and copy/paste it.

    Stupid staffer does not mean dumb company –
    I don’t think that any firearms company forgot what happened to Smith&Wesson and Ruger.

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