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The AR7 was originally designed by Eugene Stoner, of AR10, AR15, AR18, and Stoner 63 fame, and sold by ArmaLite, as the AR7, 'ArmaLite Rifle 7'
The rifle is famously seen in some of the early James Bond movies, where Sean Connery is at one point shown shooting down a helicopter with one, amazingly. Presumably the rifle was chosen because of how neat and 'gadgety' it was.
The rights to the design changed hands a few times over the years, at one point Charter Arms made them, these are generally regarded as the lowest quality. They were later made by Survival Arms, and eventually as the patents expired, Henry Arms started making their own, which I understand are mostly nicer. The AR7 was supposed to float in water, so it could be more easily located/retrieved in disaster situations, but generally they never floated very well, the Henry made ones actually float for a while, but eventually they will apparently sink.
Henry also tweaked the compartment design some so that you could store the receiver with a magazine inserted, rather than having to remove it, like on the older variants, thus allowing you to store the gun in its stock with one magazine loaded, and then two spares.
