Colt, the longtime gun manufacturer, is suspending production of the popular and controversial AR-15 and other long rifles for civilian use, according to reports on Thursday.

The action comes as politicians and others across the nation continue today’s highly contentious gun rights and gun control debates in light of too many mass shootings and tragedies in the United States.

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Dennis Veilleux, president and chief executive of the Connecticut-based company, said the consumer market has “experienced significant excess manufacturing capacity.” Colt believes there are enough rifles on the market for the foreseeable future, as Fox News noted.

Colt will focus instead on fulfilling military and law enforcement contracts, the company indicated.

“Currently, these high-volume contracts are absorbing all of Colt’s manufacturing capacity for rifles,” Veilleux said in a statement.

“We believe it is good sense to follow consumer demand and to adjust as market dynamics change,” he also said.

The company’s history dates back to the 1830s, as The Wall Street Journal noted; it’s known for its trademarked AR-15 rifle, which is available to civilians.

The suspects and perpetrators responsible for many of the country’s mass shootings — including accused gunman Nikolaus Cruz in Parkland, Florida, in February 2018 — have used this style of rifle to commit their heinous crimes.

That’s part of what Second Amendment proponents try vehemently to remind others during discussions about gun crime in this country: Compromised individuals commit these crimes, not the guns themselves.

Plenty of law-abiding citizens possess and use the weapon responsibly and without problem or trouble — but that part of the story gets little or no attention.

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Yet former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke — clinging to his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for 2020 — recently has focused on all the things he’d take away from America and Americans.

He said in the last Democratic debate, for example, which was held in Houston, that “hell, yes,” he’d take away “your AR-15, your AK-47” in an effort to protect all Americans from gun violence — never mind that his proposal would mean ripping away legally purchased possessions from law-abiding citizens across the country and would violate the Second Amendment.

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