Colt will stop producing AR-15 rifles for consumers, the Connecticut-based gunmaker announced Thursday.

In a statement, Colt’s CEO Dennis Veilleux said the decision to suspend production was entirely market-driven. The statement made no mention of the mass shootings that involved the style of semi-automatic weapon, which include the Sandy Hook and Parkland tragedies. And though neither of the firearms in those two shootings were manufactured by Colt, the gunmaker did own the patent for the design of the widely popular AR-15 until it expired in the 1970s, when other companies could begin making and selling similar types of weapon.

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“The public is getting very alarmed about what’s happening with assault rifles in the hands of potential mass shooters,” John Donohue, a Stanford Law professor with expertise in gun policy, tells TIME. “Colt may just be feeling better to get out of that particular market, and they’re offering this purely economic manufacturing argument rather than addressing the political realities right now as the justification for this decision.”