ArmaLite first developed the AR-15 in 1956 as a US military rifle to replace the aging M-1 but had limited success in selling it. In 1959 the company sold the design to Colt. Instead, the US military went for the M-14 (later the M-16) as Russia and other Warsaw Bloc nations adopted the AK-47. The ArmaLite patents have long-since expired, but the term “AR-15” has become a generic reference to similarly designed semi-automatic assault rifles sold to the general public… which has become the main weapon of choice for cartels at our border and mass shooters here.
“There are hundreds of AR-15 manufacturers, from giants such as Freedom Group—which owns Remington, Bushmaster and DPMS—to small mom and pop boutique shops that meticulously machine and hand-fit almost every single part. Prices range from $500 to thousands. It is also extremely popular, fun and affordable to build your own. When you piece-meal your rifle together—you get exactly what you want.” The Shooters Log in cheaperthandirt.com, August 19, 2015.
According to BusinessInsider.com (May 29th), “Around 19.8 million AR-15 style rifles are in circulation in the US, a nationwide tally that's surged from around 8.5 million since a federal assault weapons ban expired in 2004… The more recent estimate comes from a November 2020 statement by the National Shooting Sports Foundation. In the statement, its President and CEO Joseph Bartozzi called the AR-15 the ‘most popular rifle sold in America’ and a ‘commonly-owned firearm.’” How did gun ownership, particularly assault weapons, get so popular?
In the mid-1970s, after the Vietnam War ceasefire resulted in a period of slowing gun sales, American gunmakers convinced the National Rifle Association to open a for-profit public relations/lobbying arm on their behalf. Obviously, that new effort was wildly successful, dramatically eclipsing the NRA’s former “gun safety” raison d’être. Gunmakers were acutely aware that traditional handguns and rifles, if reasonably maintained, just plain did not wear out. These manufacturers needed new product lines to expand sales and avoid bankruptcy.
The NRA’s subsequent massive PR and political pressure campaign made gun ownership an all-American right, even resulting in an entirely new interpretation of the Second Amendment by the US Supreme Court. Heller vs District of Columbia (2008) ruled, for the first time, that ubiquitous gun ownership was what that amendment really meant. The NRA results: “A November 2020 Gallup poll found that 44% of Americans said they live in households with guns. That would mean that of the 122 million households in the US, the hundreds of millions of firearms owned by Americans are spread among 53.7 million households.” BusinessInsider.com.
But nothing boosted gunmaker profits like the AR-15. Once the assault weapon ban expired in 2004 (passed as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994) without renewal during the George W Bush administration, a whole new category of civilian guns was unleashed. The June 8th Conversation tells us: “In the years after the assault weapons ban went into effect, the number of deaths from mass shootings fell, and the increase in the annual number of incidents slowed down. Even including 1999’s Columbine High School massacre – the deadliest mass shooting during the period of the ban – the 1994 to 2004 period saw lower average annual rates of both mass shootings and deaths resulting from such incidents than before the ban’s inception.” Numbers did not matter; after 2004, AR-15 ownership exploded.
The AR-15 was designed for one purpose: killing as many human beings in the shortest time possible. Larger magazines aided in that function. It was considered exceptionally unsportsmanlike to use that rifle for hunting… animals anyway. “U.S. gun manufacturers made more than $1 billion off the sale of AR-15-style assault rifles over the past decade, according to a House committee investigation released Wednesday [7/27], as congressional Democrats push for a ban on the guns in the wake of a string of mass shootings.” Forbes.com, July 27th.
The weapon is so widely popular that one US gunmaker developed a new market for one version of the gun: “A US weapons manufacturer unveiled a mini-version of an AR-15 style rifle for children. In a bid to market the assault-style rifle among teens, the Illinois-based gun maker, Wee1 Tactical, promised that the firearm is packed with the same lethal punch just like ‘mom and dad's gun.’ Titled JR-15 (Junior Rifle-15), the assault-style weapon is 20% smaller compared to its original version and weighs just 2.3 pounds (1 kilogram).
“The rifle comes with a magazine space of 5 or 10 rounds of 0.22 caliber bullets, priced at just $389. Wee1 Tactical dubs the gun as ‘first in a line of shooting platforms that will safely help adults introduce children to shooting sports.’ The rifle also [comes] with a complete logo, showing a skull and crossbones, eye targets, and pacifiers in an attempted indication that the weapons are for kids.” RepublicWorld.com, February 19th.
While handguns were most responsible for shooting incidents involving more than two people, according to Newsweek, 26% of such shootings involved AR-15s… with vastly more devastating kill ratios. In 2021, the Gun Violence Archive recorded 692 mass shootings and found that gun violence overall killed 45,010 people. According to an article published in the April 16, 2022 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, in recent years, gun-related injuries surpassed motor vehicle accidents as the most common cause of death in youths and children, and this number continues to increase each year.
Despite a clear popular outcry for at least some reasonable gun control, there has been marginal progress, at best: “President Joe Biden in June signed into law the first major gun safety legislation passed in decades. The measure failed to ban any weapons, but it includes funding for school safety and state crisis intervention programs. Many states -- including California, Delaware and New York -- have also passed new laws to help curb gun violence, such as regulating untraceable ghost guns and strengthening background check systems.” CNN.com, June 30th.
The Supreme Court seems to be moving in the other direction as it found in June that a century old law imposing NY State requirements for concealed weapons too stringent (New York State Rifle & Pistol Association vs Bruen). NY has since passed legislation creating “gun free” zones that has yet to be seriously challenged in the higher federal courts. Yet Americans are growing increasingly opposed to the lack of meaningful gun control. According to an IPSOS/ABC New Poll released on June 5th:
- Overall, 70% say enacting new laws should be higher priority, and 29% say the higher priority is protecting the right to own a wide variety of guns.
- The gap between these two priorities has slightly widened (net +9 points) from March 2021 (66% enacting laws vs. 34% protecting gun ownership).
- Nine in ten Democrats and 75% of independents agree that the higher priority should be enacting new laws to reduce gun violence. However, the majority of Republicans (56%) instead say the higher priority is to protect the right to own a variety of guns.
It is increasingly obvious that United States is governed by a right-wing minority that does not care what the majority of Americans think or want.
I’m Peter Dekom, and we seem to be the only nation, not embroiled in war within its own territory, that prioritizes easy access to military-designed semiautomatic assault weapons over protecting the lives of its own children.
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