Remington, a company that began making flintlock rifles when there were only 19 United States, has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Mounting debts at the arms manufacturer have snowballed, ironically, since the election of Donald Trump, who has called himself a "true friend" to the gun industry.

Remington, which as roots dating to 1816, has lined up $100 million with lenders to continue operations.

It remains unclear what will happen to the 3,500 or so employees at Remington as it reorganizes.

Panic sales that drove revenue for gun makers ever higher evaporated with Trump's arrival in the White House, and Remington's production of one of the most well-known weapons in the world, the Bushmaster AR-15, have overwhelmed the Madison, North Carolina, company.

Late Sunday, according to records from the bankruptcy court of the district of Delaware, Remington Outdoor Co. agreed to a prepackaged deal that would give holders of the company's $550 million term loan an 82.5 percent stake, according to a release.

Third-lien noteholders will take 17.5 percent of Remington and four-year warrants get a 15 percent stake.

The Bushmaster AR-15 rifle was used in the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut in which 20 first-graders and six educators were killed in 2012.

The same gun was used to kill 17 in a Parkland, Florida, high school, a massacre that lead to drew hundreds of thousands of anti-gun violence protesters to the capital and to the streets in cities across the nation this past weekend.

The company was cleared of wrongdoing in the Sandy Hook shooting, but investors wanted nothing to do with it. Cerberus Capital Management, which had acquired the company in 2007 as gun sales began to boom, tried to sell it less than a week after the shooting.

There were no takers.