Daniel Defense

Daniel Defense began as a hobby of its founder, Marty Daniel.[1] Its year of establishment is variously reported as 2000,[2] 2001,[1] or 2002.[3] Daniel's wife, Cindy Daniel, is chief operating officer of the company.[4] Both Daniels are outspoken supporters of Donald Trump and other Republican Party candidates.[4] The company adopted a direct-to-consumer e-commerce sales model and offered "buy-now-pay-later" plans, allow consumers to acquire costly weapons immediately and pay in installments over time.[4]

Daniel Defense is among the largest privately held manufacturers of firearms and firearm accessories in the US,[1] and by 2014 it had been named to the Inc. 5000, a list of fast-growing privately held U.S. companies, three times.[3] However, the company is small relative to other gun manufacturers like Colt and Smith & Wesson.[1][4]

In its early years, Daniel Defense manufactured rails, the components of firearms to which scopes, laser sights, and other accessories are attached.[3] The company dramatically expanded in 2003, after winning a $20 million U.S. Special Forces contract for specialized rails for M4 rifles.[1][2]

In 2009, the company began manufacturing its own rifles and cold hammer forged barrels.[3] The company produced 24 guns in 2009, and 10,000 guns in 2010.[5] The company manufactured slightly fewer than 53,000 guns in 2020, with less than 1% of U.S. firearms market share.[4]

The company's flagship product is the Daniel Defense DDM4 AR-15 style rifle.[3][1] The company sells the DDM4 to the U.S. Department of Defense, foreign militaries, and civilians; the rifle is sold in automatic form to military and police, and in semi-automatic form to civilians.[3] In 2014, Daniel Defense sold DDM4 rifles to Missouri State Police and North Dakota Highway Patrol, making its first sale of that gun to law enforcement agencies.[3] Daniel Defense also manufactures the 14.5 in (368 mm) barrel and gas block for USSOCOM's Upper Receiver Group-Improved (URG-I).[6]

According to Forbes magazine, in 2016 Daniel Defense had sales of $73 million[1][4] and 279 employees.[1] Marty Daniel stated in 2016 that 90% of the company's sales were to consumers, and 10% were to governments.[1]

The company initially was located in Garden City, Georgia, sharing space with Daniel's other business making overhead doors and fireplaces.[5] In 2008, the company outgrew the space[5] and moved to Black Creek, Georgia, where it is now based.[3][1] The company opened a 90,000-square-foot facility in Ridgeland, South Carolina in 2012,[5] but announced the closure of that facility in 2016.[7] In late 2017, construction of a new $29 million, 300,000 square foot building for the company was completed in Black Creek, consolidating the company's previous locations in Black Creek and Ridgeland.[8] The formal ribbon-cutting for the new Black Creek facility which employs 210 people, held in May 2018, was attended by Georgia's governor, Nathan Deal, and other state and local officials.[8]

The National Rifle Association of America selected the Daniel Defense V7 as the 2017 gun of the year.[9]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company accepted a $3.1 million loan from the federal Paycheck Protection Program.[4]

Daniel Defense is known for its provocative online advertisements.[4] Some of the company's advertisements use pop-culture references or characters that appeal to youth, including references to the Call of Duty series of video games, to Star Wars characters, and to Santa Claus.[4]

Daniel, the company's founder and CEO, has positioned himself as a provocateur, mocking gun control measures and engaging in publicity stunts to promote the company's products.[4] Ryan Busse, a former executive at gun company Kimber who later became a critic of the gun industry, called Daniel Defense "basically the poster child" of "egregious, aggressive marketing" by gun sellers.[4] Everytown for Gun Safety has also criticized Daniel Defense's advertisements for glorifying "violence and war" in marketing.[4]

• List of modern armament manufacturers

• Official website