Up until about 2006, only a handful of companies were making AR-15s
Uh, so who were all those companies making "work-around" version after 1994?
In 1993, year before the AWB, there were DPMS, Eagle, Olympic, Bushmaster, Colt, and others, those just off the top of my head.
2006 was
twelve years later, and in the huge post-ban groundswell where two-grand ARs dropped to $800, then $600, and even lower after that.
Y'know, we "olds" are not dead yet, you can ask us questions about the Beforetimes (as long as you are polite about it). The portrait of author of the quote in OP ought be enshrined next to the definition of "hubris."
Or, perhaps next to Reagan's quote about how it's not what they don't know, but what they are certain of.