Colt's Manufacturing Company in the context of Samuel Colt

The Colt M1911 (also known as 1911, Colt 1911, Colt .45, or Colt Government in the case of Colt-produced models) is a single-action, recoil-operated, semi-automatic pistol chambered primarily for the .45 ACP cartridge.

A lever action is a type of action for repeating firearms that uses a manually operated cocking handle located around the trigger guard area (often incorporating it) that pivots forward to move the bolt via internal linkages, which will feed and extract cartridges into and out of the chamber, and cock the firing pin mechanism. This contrasts to other type of repeating actions such as the bolt-action, pump-action, semi-automatic, fully automatic, and/or burst mode actions. A firearm using this operating mechanism is colloquially referred to as a levergun.

Most lever-action firearms are rifles, but some lever-action shotguns and a few pistols have been made. The Winchester Model 1873 rifle is one of the most famous lever-action firearms, but many manufacturers (notably Henry Repeating Arms and Marlin Firearms) also produce lever-action rifles. Colt produced the 6403 lever-action Colt-Burgess rifles from 1883 until 1885 and Mossberg formerly produced the Model 464 rifle.

An AR-15–style rifle is a lightweight semi-automatic rifle based on or similar to the Colt AR-15 design. The Colt model removed the selective fire feature of its predecessor, the original ArmaLite AR-15, which is a scaled-down derivative of the AR-10 design (by Eugene Stoner). It is closely related to the military M16 rifle.

ArmaLite sold the patent and trademarks for both to Colt's Manufacturing Company in 1959 after the military rejected the design in favor of the M14. After most of the patents for the Colt AR-15 expired in 1977, many firearm manufacturers began to produce copies of the rifle under various names. While the patents are expired, Colt has retained the trademark to the AR-15 name and is the sole manufacturer able to label their firearms as such.

The ArmaLite AR-15 is a gas-operated assault rifle manufactured in the United States between 1959 and 1964. Designed by American gun manufacturer ArmaLite in 1956, it was based on its AR-10 rifle. The ArmaLite AR-15 was designed to be a lightweight rifle and to fire a new high-velocity, lightweight, small-caliber cartridge to allow infantrymen to carry more ammunition.

In 1959, ArmaLite sold its rights to the AR-15 to Colt due to financial difficulties and limitations in terms of manpower and production capacity. After modifications (most notably, the charging handle was re-located from under the carrying handle like AR-10 to the rear of the receiver), Colt rebranded it the Colt 601, however, it still carried the Armalite markings due to contractual obligations to Armalite/Fairchild Aircraft Co. Colt marketed the redesigned rifle to various military services around the world and was eventually adopted by the U.S. military in January 1962 and subsequently designated as M16 rifle in December 1963, which went into production and service in 1964.

The .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol), also known as .45 Auto, .45 Automatic, or 11.43×23mm is a rimless straight-walled handgun cartridge designed by John Moses Browning in 1904, for use in his prototype Colt semi-automatic pistol. After successful military trials, it was adopted as the standard chambering for Colt's M1911 pistol. The round was developed due to a lack of stopping power experienced in the Moro Rebellion in places like Sulu. The issued ammunition, .38 Long Colt, had proved inadequate, motivating the search for a better cartridge. This experience and the Thompson–LaGarde Tests of 1904 led the Army and the Cavalry to decide that a minimum of .45 caliber was required in a new handgun cartridge.

The standard-issue military .45 ACP cartridge uses a 230 gr (15 g; 0.53 oz) round-nose bullet at approximately 830 ft/s (250 m/s) fired from a government-issue M1911A1 pistol. It operates at a relatively low maximum chamber pressure rating of 21,000 psi (140 MPa), compared to 35,000 psi (240 MPa) for both 9mm Parabellum and .40 S&W, which due to a low bolt thrust helps extend the service lives of weapons. Since standard-pressure .45 ACP rounds are subsonic when fired from handguns and submachine guns, it is a useful caliber for suppressed weapons as it lacks the sonic boom inherent to supersonic rounds.

The Colt Automatic Rifle-15 or CAR-15 is a family of M16 rifle–based firearms marketed by Colt in the 1960s and early 1970s. However, the term "CAR-15" is most commonly associated with the Colt Commando (AKA: XM177); these select-fire carbines have ultrashort 10.5-inch (270 mm) and 11.5-inch (290 mm) barrels with over-sized flash suppressors.