The Bushmaster XM-15 series (or XM15) is a line of AR-15 style semi-automatic rifles and

carbine A carbine ( or ) is a long gun that has a barrel shortened from its original length. Most modern carbines are rifles that are compact versions of a longer rifle or are rifles chambered for less powerful cartridges. The smaller size and lighte ...

s previously manufactured by

Bushmaster Firearms International, LLC Bushmaster Firearms International, LLC, was an American firearm manufacturer and distributor. The company's product line revolved around semi-automatic pistol and rifle variants of the M4/AR-15 design. The company is currently defunct; it merge ...

. Variants include the

Bushmaster M4-type Carbine The Bushmaster M4 or M4A3 is a semi-automatic or select-fire carbine manufactured by Bushmaster Firearms International, modeled on the AR-15. It is one of the Bushmaster XM15 line of rifles and carbines. Design The M4 Type Carbine is a copy of ...

, Patrolman series, QRC series, Bushmaster XM15-E2S, and the Carbon 15 line.

Variants

The standard XM-15 has a

forged Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compressive forces. The blows are delivered with a hammer (often a power hammer) or a die. Forging is often classified according to the temperature at which it ...

7075T6 aircraft-grade

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

upper and lower receiver. Barrels of XM-15 firearms have a heavy profile and are hard chrome-lined 4150 alloy steel or 416

stainless steel Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's r ...

. In Bushmaster's 2016 sales brochure, all new-production XM-15s are stated to be supplied with a 4150

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistan ...

barrel. The standard barrel has

rifling In firearms, rifling is machining helical grooves into the internal (bore) surface of a gun's barrel for the purpose of exerting torque and thus imparting a spin to a projectile around its longitudinal axis during shooting to stabilize the ...

of 1 turn in 9". *E2S Series: The basic E2S is fitted with a 16-inch carbine-style barrel. **E2S Target - 20" heavy-barrel target rifle with A2-style stock and carry handle upper, also available with 24" and 26" barrels. **E2S Shorty - 16-inch version with a "shorty" handguard. **E2S Shorty AK - Shorty variant with 14.5-inch carbine SBR barrel with an

AK-74 The AK-74 ( Russian: , tr. ''Avtomat Kalashnikova obraztsa 1974 goda'', lit. 'Kalashnikov assault rifle model 1974) is an assault rifle designed by small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1974. While primarily associated with the Soviet ...

-style

muzzle brake A muzzle brake or recoil compensator is a device connected to, or a feature integral to the construction of, the muzzle or barrel of a firearm or cannon that is intended to redirect a portion of propellant gases to counter recoil and unwanted ...

permanently

welded Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing fusion. Welding is distinct from lower temperature techniques such as braz ...

to the end to increase the overall length to 16 inches. **E2S Dissipator - Variant with a Bushmaster-designed 16-inch "Dissipator" barrel. This mounts a false gas block with a front sight at the 20" position with the real gas block in the carbine position and concealed under a rifle-length 12" handguard. *QRC Series: Formerly known as ORC ("optics ready carbine"), but now styled as QRC ("quick response carbine"), are flat-top rifles without iron sights, provided with a simple 1x20 red-dot optic. QRC is chambered in 5.56x45mm with a 1:8 twist melonite coated barrel, M16 style bolt carrier group & mil-spec buffer tube. *Patrolman Series: - 7" or 10.5" barrel "pistol" version with a free-float handguard and no stock. Also available as a military or LE

select-fire Selective fire is the capability of a weapon to be adjusted to fire in semi-automatic, fully automatic, and/or burst mode. The modes are chosen by means of a selector switch, which varies depending on the weapon's design. Some selective-fire w ...

version. *Bushmaster M4-Type Carbine *Carbon 15

Notoriety

The Bushmaster XM15-E2S "M4 type" carbine first gained notoriety for its use in the October 2002

Beltway sniper attacks The D.C. sniper attacks (also known as the Beltway sniper attacks) were a series of coordinated shootings that occurred during three weeks in October 2002 throughout the Washington metropolitan area, consisting of the District of Columbia, M ...

. A Bushmaster XM-15 was used in the December 2012

Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people. Twenty of the victims were children between six and seven years old, and t ...

. Just before the two-year anniversary of the massacre, nine families of the 26 victims of the shooting filed a

class action lawsuit A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

in Connecticut against Bushmaster,

Remington Arms Remington Arms Company, LLC was an American manufacturer of firearms and ammunition, now broken into two companies, each bearing the Remington name. The firearms manufacturer is ''Remington Arms''. The ammunition business is called ''Remington ...

and others, seeking "unspecified" damages for the

defendants In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case. Terminology varies from one jurisdi ...

' purported negligent entrustment and illegal marketing of the XM-15 rifle.

Plaintiffs A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of t ...

argued that both theories of liability fell within exceptions to the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which affords broad civil immunity to gun manufacturers. The case was dismissed in superior court and was appealed to the

Connecticut Supreme Court The Connecticut Supreme Court, formerly known as the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, is the highest court in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It consists of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices. The seven justices sit in Hartford, a ...

. In March 2019, the Connecticut Supreme Court reinstated the

wrongful death Wrongful death claim is a claim against a person who can be held liable for a death. The claim is brought in a civil action, usually by close relatives, as enumerated by statute. In wrongful death cases, survivors are compensated for the harm, ...

lawsuit, holding that the plaintiffs successfully pleaded a cause of action for illegal marketing. Remington

appealed In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...

to the United States Supreme Court, which denied review on November 12, 2019. On February 15, 2022,

insurers settled with families of Sandy Hook victims and agreed to pay a total of $73 million to families. An XM-15 was also used in the 1997 North Hollywood shootout, and an XM-15 was used in the 2018 Nashville Waffle House shooting. An XM15-E2 was captured from

Islamic State An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic ter ...

fighters in

Sinjar Mountains The Sinjar Mountains ( ku, چیایێ شنگالێ, translit=Çiyayê Şingalê, ar, جبل سنجار, translit=Jabal Sinjār, syr, ܛܘܪܐ ܕܫܝܓܪ, Ṭura d'Shingar,) are a mountain range that runs east to west, rising above the surroundi ...

Peshmerga The Peshmerga ( ku, پێشمەرگه, Pêşmerge, lit=those who face death) is the Kurdish military forces of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. According to the Constitution of Iraq, the Peshmerga, along with their security subsidiaries, ...

during the Iraqi Civil War.

Legality

As of October 2, 2000, California has banned the Bushmaster XM15 by name in the Kasler v. Lockyer Assault Weapon List, among other AR-style rifles by

Armalite ArmaLite, or Armalite, is an American small arms engineering company, formed in the early 1950s, in Hollywood, California. Many of its products, as conceived by chief designer Eugene Stoner, relied on unique foam-filled fiberglass butt/stock fu ...

, DPMS, Colt, and Eagle Arms, to name a few. As a result of the Sandy Hook school shooting: * New York State banned the Bushmaster XM-15 series and

assault weapon In the United States, ''assault weapon'' is a controversial term used to define firearms with specified characteristics. The definition varies among regulating jurisdictions, but usually includes semi-automatic firearms with a detachable magaz ...

s in the January 2013

NY SAFE Act The New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2013, commonly known as the NY SAFE Act, is a gun regulation statute, law in the state of New York (state), New York. The law was passed by the New York State Legislature and was sig ...

. * The XM-15 series is among over 100 named firearms added to the Connecticut state assault weapon ban list in an April 2013 amendment, passed in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting.

Users

* :

Federal Police of Brazil The Federal Police of Brazil (Portuguese: ''Polícia Federal'') is a federal law enforcement agency of Brazil and one of the three national police forces. The other two are the Federal Highway Police, and the National Force. From 1944 to 1967 i ...

* : Georgian Land Forces uses

* :

New Zealand Police The New Zealand Police ( mi, Ngā Pirihimana o Aotearoa) is the national police service and principal law enforcement agency of New Zealand, responsible for preventing crime, enhancing public safety, bringing offenders to justice, and maintaini ...

* * : Used by JW GROM. * **

Boston Police Special Operations Unit The Boston Police Department (BPD), dating back to 1854, holds the primary responsibility for law enforcement and investigation within the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest municipal police department in the United States. The ...

Cincinnati Police Department The Cincinnati Police Department is the primary law enforcement agency of Cincinnati, Ohio. The department has 1,057 sworn officers and 281 non-sworn employees. History When Cincinnati incorporated, as a village, in 1802, a ‘ night watch ...

** United States Fish & Wildlife Service

Non-State Actors

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic ter ...

References

{{ArmaLite AR-10 derivatives 5.56 mm firearms Rifles of the United States Semi-automatic rifles Bushmaster firearms ArmaLite AR-10 derivatives AR-15 style rifles