Post-Vietnam popularity spurred Bushmaster's success

An American soldier firing his M16 rifle during the My Lai massacre on March 16, 1968 in My Lai, South Vietnam. Military veterans and the general gun-buying public were increasingly fascinated with the AR-15, the civilian version of the M-16 that was standard-issue in the Vietnam War. less An American soldier firing his M16 rifle during the My Lai massacre on March 16, 1968 in My Lai, South Vietnam. Military veterans and the general gun-buying public were increasingly fascinated with the AR-15, ... more Photo: Ronald L. Haeberle, The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Photo: Ronald L. Haeberle, The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Post-Vietnam popularity spurred Bushmaster's success 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

WASHINGTON -- In 1976, a former IRS agent and Army counter-intelligence veteran named Richard Dyke put down $241,000 for a failing gun company in Bangor, Maine, that made M-16 and AR-15 rifles for the military and police.

Dyke's timing couldn't have been better.

Military veterans and the gun-buying public were fascinated with the AR-15, the civilian version of the M-16 that was standard-issue in the Vietnam War.

Dyke rode his Bushmaster-brand AR-15 to fortune, if not fame. According to news reports, he dressed in silk shirts, drove a Rolls Royce and built a helipad outside his Maine mansion -- not bad for a man who never lived in a home with an indoor bathroom before going to college. In 2006, Dyke sold Bushmaster to Cerberus Capital Management for more than $70 million.

The key to Dyke's success was realizing the military-style weapon could be modified and marketed to the general public.

Now, that push to sell the weapon to civilians could be Bushmaster's undoing.

On Dec. 12, the families of some Sandy Hook victims filed a wrongful death suit against Bushmaster, as well as the distributor and retailer who sold the weapon Adam Lanza used in the December 2012 Newtown massacre. They claimed that Bushmaster was negligent in selling a military-style rifle such as the AR-15 to the general public, where an unfit person could use it for murder.

Although a 2005 federal law precludes liability lawsuits against gun companies, lawyers for the plaintiffs argued it contains an exception for "negligent entrustment" -- when a seller knows or should know that the buyer could use the weapon to harm others.

"This is an assault weapon that is good for use on the battlefield and by police officers, but it is a negligent choice to sell it to the general public," Michael Koskoff, a Bridgeport attorney whose firm filed the lawsuit on behalf of the families, told Hearst Connecticut Media.

Tatical cool

The tragedy in Newtown, Conn., was not Bushmaster's debut in the glare of negative publicity. In 2002, the D.C. sniper, John Allen Muhammad, used a Bushmaster to kill 10 random victims in the Washington area. Bushmaster denied responsibility but paid $550,000 to family members of victims as its part of a $2.5 million settlement.

And just weeks after Newtown, a deranged killer, William Spengler, used a Bushmaster to kill two firefighters in Webster, N.Y. who were responding to a fire Spengler had set.

But it was Newtown that turned Bushmaster from a brand identified with hunting, target shooting and what one gun-trade publication described as ``tactical coolness,'' to one synonymous with mass killing.

The typical Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle is made of forged aluminum or Carbon-15 composite, and weighs between six and eight pounds. Its military counterpart has a selector switch enabling it to fire one shot per trigger pull or fully automatic, while the civilian AR-15 under federal law is strictly single shot. Even so, shooters can empty a 30-round magazine in as little time as it takes them to pull and release the trigger.

In recent annual reports, Cerberus boasted that its Bushmaster, Remington and DPMS brands comprised the nation's No.-1 seller of ``modern sporting rifles,'' the euphemistic description favored by the firearms industry for military-style weaponry.

In an unintended irony, Bushmaster's notoriety may have boosted its popularity at least for a time.

``Was Bushmaster well-marketed? Yes. Were there incidents? Yes. Did it work to their benefit? Yes,'' said Richard Feldman, a veteran gun lobbyist who is president of the New-Hampshire-based Independent Firearm Owners Association. ``The negative turns to a positive in terms of marketing. No manufacturer wants that to happen. There is a benefit you wish you didn't have, but you take what you can get. That's capitalism.''

In its latest SEC filing, Cerberus -- the Remington Outdoor Inc. parent -- reported net sales of $1.2 billion in 2013, nearly a 50-percent rise from 2009.

Adapted for civilians

Gun-owner fears of new limits on gun purchases prompted buying frenzies of AR-15s and other weapons in the wake of President Obama's 2008 election and 2012 re-election. None of these fears were realized and gun sales for the most part have cooled in the past year, according to firearms industry observers.

The Newtown-based National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry's main trade group, argues that the popularity of ``modern sporting rifles'' are reflected in historic civilian adaptations of military weapons that made their debuts in the Civil War, World War I and World War II.

"Battlefield requirements in a rifle such as accuracy, ruggedness, reliability and fast follow-up shots are features equally sought by hunters and target shooters," the foundation says in a posting on its web site.

Gun control advocates disagree.

"They were designed specifically for military purposes to kill people," said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Washington-based Violence Policy Center. "We just don't buy the idea that you can go and copy a military gun because some segment wants it and that makes it appropriate in the civilian market. That doesn't make any sense."

Post-Newtown state laws including New York's SAFE Act and Connecticut's assault weapons ban could also contribute to a downturn in sales of Bushmaster and other brands of AR-15.

But Bushmaster and other gun companies have proved adroit in re-designing weapons to go around such laws. California, for instance, has had a state assault weapons ban since 1989, following several mass shootings with semi-automatic rifles.

Under the law, weapons are banned if they have detachable magazines. But a magazine removable with a ``tool'' is OK. Bushmaster among others devised ``California-compliant'' rifles with a ``bullet button'' _ a button activated with a bullet that ejects a magazine and allows the shooter to replace a magazine almost as quickly as if done by hand.

But the New York and Connecticut laws do not contain this loophole, gun control advocates say. Both laws ``were written with lessons of California and other states in mind,'' said Josh Sugarmann, Violence Policy Center executive director.

Back in Bushmaster's spawning grounds in Maine, Dyke and his son Jeff Dyke formed a new company, Windham Weaponry, that employs many of the Bushmaster personnel who lost their jobs in the wake of Cerberus buying the company in 2006.

Asked by an interviewer for a Maine weekly what is it about making guns that intrigues him, Dyke answered: "It doesn't."

``I think you can buy a toilet bowl (company) and if you've got the right people to make it and you've got another right group of people to sell it, you'll sell more toilet bowls than anyone else will,'' he said.

dan@hearstdc.com