Because all but a few gun manufacturers are closely held private companies, overall sales figures for the black rifle industry are hard to come by. But companies are required to report their overall rifle production to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and based on that, many of the small manufacturers that have specialized in the guns are "on the verge of being big," Bane says. One, Stag Arms of New Britain, Connectcut, opened in 2004 and is already producing 2,500 to 3,000 black rifles a month, according to the president and owner, Mark Malkowski. That would be 30,000 to 36,000 a year, roughly the same number that Colt was producing in the late 1990s.
Buoyant demand has enticed a number of established gunsmiths into the market, too. Smith & Wesson, known for its revolvers, has made black rifles a strategic priority in its turnaround. It introduced its first model in early 2006. It was so popular that the company had to supplement manufacturing of the gun, which had been outsourced, just to meet consumer demand.
Despite their popularity, black rifles remain a target for advocates of gun control. Seven states, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, as well as several major cities, including New York and Chicago, have enacted bans on certain firearms they have deemed assault weapons, including some black rifles.
In February, Representative Carolyn McCarthy, introduced a renewal of the federal ban on assault weapons that would greatly expand the measure. But few expect the bill to gain any traction.
"It's highly unlikely that any legislation to move an assault weapons ban is going to happen," says Kristen Rand, legislative director at the Violence Policy Center, a gun-control lobbying group. "That's the sad reality on the Hill right now."
Rand says it is hard to know how often black rifles are used in crime, because the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has not reported such statistics to the public since 2001. But based on anecdotal evidence, Rand says, criminals are favoring imported semiautomatics like AK-47s and SKS rifles, which are cheaper to obtain than AR-15s.
"We were never claiming that every buyer of an assault weapon is a criminal or is a potential mass killer," says Hennigan of the Brady Center. "But the consumers of the assault weapons are going to include a higher percentage of violent criminals than other guns."
Gun rights advocates scoff, saying that a .223-caliber bullet that comes out of a black rifle is the same as one fired from other guns. Nugent scoffs as well.
"It's just a neat tool," he says. "Black rifles are cool. Case closed. The more the better."
Zumbo, chastened by the outcry that his black-rifle comments set off, says he hopes to resume writing about hunting and to revive his popular cable television show, which was put on hiatus when it lost sponsors after the blog post. He says his time at Nugent's ranch reminded him that gun owners have to reject banning any firearm, lest it open the door to banning them all. He also says that, like it or not, black rifles are now mainstream.
"Having met the people who shoot these things, they were regular folks; they weren't sinister people who were bent on causing harm, they weren't hostile people," he says. "They were interested in the guns because they were fun to shoot."
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