Historic Profile: Eugene Stoner

The Eugene Stoner designed Armalite Rifle AR-15 is the most popular rifle design in the US today. Popular for its modularity and performance, it has become a polarizing figure in the media on both sides of the aisle. If the mainstream media is to be believed, the ‘AR’ in AR15 stands for “assault rifle.” Rolling your eyes yet? Such futile journalistic assumptions lead to images of the rifle being developed by a faceless, nameless, government agency in a lab. Thankfully, with a little research, we know that’s not the case. 

The individual talent and insight funneled into a product with over six decades of national and personal service is still astonishing. This ingenuity and design isn’t traced back to a bureaucratic committee, but to the mind of Eugene Morrison Stoner. If you’ve ever held an AR-15 rifle in your hands, he’s the man to thank for it. At the time, many saw it as a .22 caliber pop-gun trying to replace the venerable M14. However, the AR-15 became an American institution. The modularity and the economy of the caliber it uses is nothing compared to its celebrity status. Television, film and cultural lore have kept it at the forefront of military and then civilian use since 1964.

The Birth Of A Legend

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