When Thomas Crooks climbed on top of a building in Bethel, Pennsylvania, and took aim at former President Donald Trump, he was holding America’s favorite gun.
The attempted assassin was wielding an AR-15 style rifle. Now, USA TODAY and Fox News report that the manufacturer of the popular semi-automatic rifle, valued for its customizability and low cost, was DPMS “Panther Arms,” which is currently based in West Columbia.
The clearest link between DPMS and the gun came from Fox News, who reported Monday that “law enforcement sources” described the weapon used at the rally as a “DPMS AR-15.”
The State newspaper was not able to independently confirm whether the gun was manufactured by DPMS.
“We decline to comment as we don’t have any additional details or information we can share,” a FBI spokesperson wrote in an email to The State.
But even if DPMS manufactured the gun, which The Washington Post reported was purchased by Crooks’ father in 2013, it would not have been manufactured in South Carolina. At the time, DPMS was based in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
The gun was purchased legally, according to the FBI. The agency did confirm that the weapon used was an AR-15 chambered for 5.56 mm rounds — an ammo that was developed for militaries and first widely used during the Vietnam War. There are an estimated 20 million AR-15s in the United States , according to NPR.
John Roberts, the chief legal officer of Columbia-based private equity firm JJE Capital Holdings, which owns DPMS along with the Palmetto State Armory, told The State that JJE “acquired the rights to use the DPMS brand name and associated intellectual property in 2020 as part of the bankruptcy proceedings involving Remington Outdoor Company.”
“The firearm was manufactured and sold long before JJE Capital purchased the DPMS intellectual property rights as part of the bankruptcy proceedings. JJE Capital did not manufacture or sell the firearm allegedly used and neither JJE Capital nor any of its affiliated entities own or have any direct or indirect affiliation with the manufacturer of that firearm,” Roberts wrote.
He added, “Like the rest of the nation, we condemn this senseless act of violence, and we are praying for President Trump, the other victims, and their families.”
Saturday’s shooting at a Trump rally injured the former president, killed one of the attendees and injured two others.
Panther Arms, a history
Founded in Minnesota in 1985, Defense Procurement Manufacturing Services originally made gun parts for the U.S. military. Over the last decade, the company has been bought and sold several times as its fortunes became intertwined with some of the largest debates over American gun culture.
In 2007, the company was purchased by the Cerebus Group , a New York-based private equity firm, which combined the company with two other gun manufacturers, Remington and Bushmaster, to form the Freedom Group.
But following the shooting of 26 people, including 20 schoolchildren, at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in December 2012, Cerebus said it would sell the Freedom Group following pressure from one of their largest investors, the California teacher’s pension fund. The Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, used a rifle manufactured by Bushmaster to commit the massacre.
In 2014, DPMS billed itself as the nation’s second largest manufacturer of AR-15s , according to the St. Cloud Times.
After struggling to find a buyer, Cerebus in 2015 agreed to buy back their investors’ shares in Freedom Group, which had been rebranded as Remington Outdoor. At the time, Remington was worth $880 million, according to the New York Times.
But just three years later, under pressure of lawsuits and declining gun sales, Remington, America’s oldest gun manufacturer, filed for bankruptcy .
In 2020, JJE Capital Holdings, the Columbia-based private equity firm, purchased DPMS along with four other gun brands from Remington for $2.15 million.
JJE describes itself as a firm “focused on keeping the American dream alive” through investments in companies. CEO Jamin McCallum also founded Palmetto State Armory. Many of JJE’s holdings are about finding synergies to help grow Palmetto State’s business, McCallum said in an interview .
As of June 2024, JJE owns companies with 1,900 employees, with plans to expand to 2,000 following an acquisition. While the firm primarily owns firearms and manufacturing companies, they are also own Commercial Properties of South Carolina along with Caliber Coffee, an online coffee service that describes itself as a “small-batch artisan coffee company” dedicated to delivering the “highest quality coffee to your cup while sharing our passion for the 2nd Amendment.”
The profits from these companies, some of which are in the startup stage, are reinvested in businesses that prioritize 1st and 2nd Amendment freedoms, according to McCallum.
“In an age of woke corporations telling you how to act and think and what to say and what to do, we want to offer non-firearm companies that don’t tell you how to act and think,” McCallum said.
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