AR15.com
{{Short description|Web forum for firearm-enthusiasts}}
{{Infobox website
| name = AR15.com
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| type = Web forum
| language = English
| headquarters =
| location_city = Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas
| location_country = United States
| area_served =
| owner = 2nd Adventure Group
| founder = Edward Avila
| commercial = Yes
| key_people =
| launch_date = 1996 (as mail list)
| current_status = Active
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| num_users = 10 million (2013)
| url = {{URL|ar15.com}}
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}}
AR15.com is a firearm-enthusiast web forumStephanie Clifford, [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/22/nyregion/gun-shop-owners-report-spike-in-sales-as-enthusiasts-fear-possible-new-laws.html Shop Owners Report Rise in Firearm Sales as Buyers Fear Possible New Laws], New York Times (December 22, 2012). 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.{{cite news|title=Automatic for the people: America's obsession with automatic weapons|first=Jon |last=Swaine|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|location=London, UK|year=2013|url=http://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/ar-15/}} 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.{{cite news|title=Business blames SAFE Act for move from Farmington|location=Canandaigua, New York|author=Melody Burri|newspaper=Daily Messenger |date=December 8, 2013|url=https://www.mpnnow.com/article/20131208/NEWS/131209769}}
The forum was described by Politico as a significant "cyberspace" forum for discussion of the bump stock controversy in 2014.{{citation|work=Politico|title=The Gunfight in Cyberspace|last=Valentine |first=Matt|date=December 1, 2014|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/12/gunfight-activists-online-113236}} 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.{{cite news|title=Trudeau's gun ban appeared to target coffee and a toy;Confusion Conservatives want ban lifted, apology for gun owners|last=Snyder|first=Jesse|newspaper=National Post|location=Ontario, Canada|date=13 May 2020|page=A.6}}
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.{{cite news |author1= F Riehl|title=ARFcom Interest Purchased by Brownells' Holding Company, 2nd Adventure Group |url=https://www.ammoland.com/2019/06/arfcom-interest-purchased-by-brownells-holding-company-2nd-adventure-group|accessdate=January 20, 2021 |work=Ammoland Shooting Sports News |publisher=Ammoland, Inc. |date=5 June 2019}}
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.{{cite news|publisher=Fox News|via=Yahoo! News|title=GoDaddy removes gun forum website AR15.com from its servers|date=January 16, 2021|url=https://news.yahoo.com/godaddy-removes-gun-forum-website-023247350.html}}{{cite news|newspaper=Washington Times|title=Amazon partner GoDaddy boots gun site from its servers|author=Michael Lee | date=January 11, 2021|url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/amazon-godaddy-boots-gun-site}} GoDaddy told Axios that the action was due to the site's failure to moderate content "that both promoted and encouraged violence".{{cite web|title=GOP digital operatives aim to avoid "deplatforming"|author=Lachlan Markay|website=Axios|date=January 13, 2021|url=https://www.axios.com/gop-digital-operatives-technology-b58e0162-75a6-4626-b813-da5743231173.html}}
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".{{cite web|title=DE-PLATFORMING OF GUN SITES IS A DARK HARBINGER|first=Joe |last=Bartozzi|publisher=National Shooting Sports Foundation |date=January 15, 2021|website=NSSF official website|url=https://www.nssf.org/de-platforming-of-gun-sites-is-a-dark-harbinger/}}
{{As of|January 2021}}, the DNS registrar for the AR15.com domain is Epik.ar15.com DNS record via WHOIS, accessed January 16, 2021{{Cite web|last=Allyn|first=Bobby|date=February 8, 2021|title='Lex Luthor Of The Internet': Meet The Man Keeping Far-Right Websites Alive|url=https://www.npr.org/2021/02/08/965448572/meet-the-man-behind-epik-the-tech-firm-keeping-far-right-websites-alive|url-status=live|access-date=February 9, 2021|website=NPR|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209015232/https://www.npr.org/2021/02/08/965448572/meet-the-man-behind-epik-the-tech-firm-keeping-far-right-websites-alive |archive-date=2021-02-09 }}