A top AR-style firearm manufacturer is now offering a rifle that it says complies with newly-enacted New York state gun laws that ban features found commonly on standard AR-15s and AR-10s.
Neosho, Mo.-based Black Rain Ordnance announced this month that it will be shipping AR-15 and AR-10 rifles that incorporate a specially-designed grip and stock that complies with the New York state ban on pistol grips.
The New York compliant rifle also ships with a non-threaded muzzle, a 10-round magazine and a new “lo-pro gas block without the evil bayonet lug,” the company says.
“We’re just taking [New York’s] rules and guidelines … and we’ve made a rifle that’s basically an AR-15, it’s just New York compliant,” says Black Rain Ordnance president Justin Harvel. “We’re a small enough company that we can jump at a moment’s notice and make these things happen.”
The move to build a rifle with the same functionality as a standard AR rifle without the cosmetic features some say make those rifles more “deadly” than other types of firearms is the latest in a host of efforts by pro-gun groups to show that laws banning AR-style rifles are misguided. The Black Rain Ordnance build is also the first time a major firearms manufacturer has agreed to produce a New York compliant AR variant after some local shops retrofitted components — including the Thordsen Customs stock — onto existing rifles to make them legal for customers.
In March, a Troy, N.Y., church raffled two of the locally-modified rifles to parishioners in part to protest the AR ban ushered into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo shortly after the murders at Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012. The move heartened pro-gun groups but shocked those opposed to AR-style rifles, with the New York Daily News headlining the giveaway as “Boor and Piece” on the paper’s cover.
Harvel says he’s already gotten orders for the New York compliant build, and while there’s been some negative feedback to his move, most shooters are supportive.
“We’re doing this for New York residents as a way to say: ‘Hey, we’re here to support you and help you. We’re not turning our back on you as the government has,’” Harvel says. “These people [in New York] are in a pinch, and it makes you feel good as a manufacturer to help.”
