The Truth About AAC?
Following SHOT Show 2015, Advanced Armament Corporation’s Mike Smith recently made a post on the AAC Blog to clear up “some of the wild rumors and unfounded speculation” about the silencer company, which has been under the purview of Cerberus Capital Management’s firearm and outdoor arm, Freedom Group for the past several years.
The post has been widely criticized as being wildly unprofessional, attacking a writer from another gun blog. Others have come to Smith’s defense saying that it is understandable that he is hot under the collar when his company is the target of unsubstantiated rumors or outright lies. Regardless of how you feel about the tenor of his post, Mike does at least provide some official commentary on what is going on at the company:
RUMOR: AAC is going out of business.
FACT: AAC is not going out of business. We are, however, moving to a new facility in Huntsville, Alabama, that will include most of the other companies that make up Remington Outdoor Company. The AAC facility in Lawrenceville, GA will cease production in February. The relocation of equipment and personnel will take place between the cessation of production and early May. We are taking steps to minimize any interruptions in communication and customer service during the transition so that the move is as transparent to our customers as possible. We introduced not one, not two, not three, but four new silencers this year. Would we do that if we were going out of business?
RUMOR: They came in and fired everyone.
FACT: No they didn’t. No employee has been fired from AAC in the last three years. This rumor has been spread ad-nauseam by a mouth-breathing oaf that writes for a blog, the title of which begins with a word that rhymes with “douche”. He’s relaying bad intel, spoon fed to him by former AAC personnel. Consider the source.
RUMOR: They ran off all the creative people.
FACT: Again, no, they didn’t. With the exception of one silencer in the current 2015 catalog, the other 30 or so silencers were designed by personnel that are still drawing a paycheck with AAC at the top.
RUMOR: They are merging AAC with TAPCO.
FACT: Um, no. Why would they do that? This is another one of those “douche about guns” rumors. Again, completely baseless tripe passed on by former AAC personnel and regurgitated by an easily manipulated blogger.
