NRA Rifle of the year 2014... The Tavor

[Ruger1022]

In Canada the rifle is Non-Restricted with the price tag to match, now with its popularity how long before its a prohib??



Sales of Israeli bullpup in US market exceeded expectations by almost three-times



"When small arms manufacturer IWI decided to enter the US arms market with their 'Tavor assault rifle', they were hoping to sell 6,000 rifles during their first year of operations. The actual results have exceeded even the most optimistic projections: in nine months, not less than 15,000 Tavor rifles have been sold throughout the USA. At the same time as the commercial success, the Tavor rifle – in its first year in the USA – has been selected by the National Rifle Association (NRA) and American Rifleman Magazine for their Golden Bullseye Award as 2014 Rifle of the Year.

Does this award indicate that the Tavor AR is on the way to becoming a global blockbuster like the Uzi, which was a worldwide hit for decades?

"This tremendous success has taken even us by surprise," say Uri Amit, CEO of IWI, and Shlomi Sabag, deputy CEO and President of the US subsidiary, in an exclusive interview to IsraelDefense. "It is still too early to predict that the Tavor will be as successful as the Uzi, but the American public has really embraced it so enthusiastically."

According to Uri Amit, "We really intended to sell only 6,000 Tavor rifles in the USA in 2013. In reality, the number of rifles we sold was more than twice as high. The rifle was embraced with tremendous enthusiasm by the gun buffs and soon thereafter major articles began to appear in the American arms magazines."

Not just a blockbuster hit in the US

According to Uri Amit, the rifle is not just a hit in the USA.

"Generally, 90% of our sales are intended for export, and that applies to the entire range of firearms we manufacture. The IDF are introducing the Tavor rifle into more and more units, but most of our sales take place overseas."

According to foreign reports, IWI just signed a contract with the government of Vietnam, in the context of which a facility for manufacturing the Tavor rifle was erected on the soil of this Asian country. "The market we aim the sales of this rifle at is not only the military market – we also target tactical intervention units. The shortened version of the rifle, designated 'Micro Tavor' has also been a major success story for us."[...]

Shlomi Sabag says further that one of the indicators of the success of the Tavor rifle in the USA is the fact that "An aftermarket of products associated with the Tavor rifle, like improved triggers, has evolved very quickly."

Uri Amit reveals: "We intend to start marketing 2-3 additional products in the US market in the coming year, and hope they turn out to be just as successful." For the time being, he has not provided any more details about those products.





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