The latest U.S. mass shooting, wherein a shooter killed three children and three adults at The Covenant School in Nashville, involved an AR-15 military-style rifle.
Texas is all too familiar with the weapon used in numerous deadly mass shootings across the country. The 18-year-old shooter who killed 19 students and two teachers at a Uvalde elementary school in May 2022 used two AR-style semi-automatic rifles. Salvador Ramos had posted photos of both guns on his Instagram account, one of which was a $1,870 Daniel Defense DDM4 V7 rifle purchased online. Ramos had sent messages, including a receipt screenshot, to someone he met online about the high-end gun manufactured in Georgia.
AR-15 style weapons have also infamously been used in the Las Vegas, Sutherland Springs, Orlando, San Bernardino and Sandy Hook mass shootings. Meanwhile, since the mid-2000s, the rifle has been among the most popular firearms being sold.
Here are five things you should know about AR-15 style weapons.
1. ArmaLite developed the weapon in the 1950s
The “AR” in AR-15 rifle stands for ArmaLite Rifle, after the company that developed it in 1957. The letters do not stand for “assault rifle” or “automatic rifle.”
In 1959, Colt purchased the design from ArmaLite. The U.S. army adopted the rifle in 1963 as the “M-16.” A semiautomatic version was marketed to the American public beginning in 1964.
2. AR-15 weapons fall under “black rifles” category
Black rifles including the AR-15 refer to light, durable black polymer gunstocks used after the 1960s instead of the traditional wood, per The Firearm Blog.
“Today the term simply means any modern military rifle, or any rifle patterned after a modern military rifle, the two most common of these by far being the AR-15 and AK types,” the website says.
3. AR-15 popularized when the Federal Assault Weapons Ban expired
The Federal Assault Weapons Ban, signed into law in 1994, restricted the features of AR-15 rifles bought by civilians. The ban expired a decade later in 2004, raising interest in the weapons and spiking purchases of the black rifles by the American public.
In the past decade, firearms manufacturers have made about $1 billion from the sale of AR-15 style weapons.
4. Millions of AR-15 style rifles in the U.S.
According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, there were 20 million AR-15 style weapons as of 2020.
From 1990 to 2020, the U.S. imported or manufactured over 24.4 million. In 2020 alone, the U.S. imported or manufactured 2.8 million of the rifles.
5. The AR-15 controversy continues
Gun control advocates say that, because AR-15 style rifles function like military weapons and quickly kill many people, civilians should not be allowed to own them. Gun owners say they should remain legal because they are used for many different types of hunting and they’re used for target shooting in national matches.
While the AR-15 is not fully automatic, having been severely restricted from civilian ownership since 1934 with the National Firearms Act, a bump stock can be added to make it so. Without it, the shooter must pull the trigger to fire each shot.
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