The AR-15 rifle has been explained in various ways: “America’s Rifle” and an extremely strong symbol in America’s gun culture. To a lot of gun owners, the rifle is the complete meaning of versatility and power. To advocates for gun control, the gun underlines their reason for claiming frequent use in mass shootings.
The AR-15 has been the preferred gun in several highly publicized mass shootings, including the tragedies in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York. It was this model that was used in a series of attacks at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in 2012; the concert in Las Vegas in 2017; and at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in 2018.
It initially developed in the 1950s from Armalite for civilian use. The common misconception about the AR-15 is that “AR” stands for either “assault rifle” or “automatic rifle,” but that is an acronym for Armalite Rifle. In 1959, the design was sold to Colt, which later produced a military version called the M-16 for the Vietnam War. Early problems with jamming gave way to improvements in its design, securing it through military history.
Colt also produced a semi-automatic version of the M-16, to be sold to police and civilians, that kept the AR-15 name in the post-Vietnam era. Semi-automatic weapons, such as the AR-15, fire one shot for every single pull of the trigger but automatically position a new round in the firing chamber in preparation for the next shot. Fully automatic weapons, that is, those firing continuously until the trigger is released, are highly restricted and significantly more expensive in the United States.
Colt’s patent expired in the 1970s, and the company’s stranglehold on the market at that time opened the option of producing AR-15-style rifles to other manufacturers. Today, nearly 500 companies fabricate AR-15s or related accessories. Of an estimated 434 million firearms in civilian hands in the U.S., about 20 million are AR-15-style rifles, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
The AR-15 was designed with a useable ease. The lightweight, adjustable stock and undynamic recoil make it user-friendly even for poor shooters. The military profile of this rifle is the civilian version of the M-16 hence making it popular with veterans and civilians alike. According to Grant Reeher, a professor of political science at Syracuse University, many of the returning soldiers wanted to have an AR-15 because they used M-16s in the service.
Nicknamed the “LEGO of guns,” the AR-15 allows enthusiasts who build and customize firearms to do just that. That versatility, combined with the expiration in 2004 of the federal ban on semi-automatic assault weapons, helped propel the rifle’s popularity. The ’94 ban had also impeded sales by restricting some firearm models and certain large-capacity magazines. The post-9/11 surge of patriotic sentiment and the popularity of first-person shooter video games such as Call of Duty, further increased its popularity.
The AR-15 happens to be associated with mass shootings. One such study by the University of Alabama and Worcester State University determined that semi-automatic rifles are increasingly associated with such incidents. Between 1966 and 2009, about a third of mass shooters used a semi-automatic rifle, but in the decade after that, the percentage jumped to 56%. Such rifles tend to produce higher casualty rates compared to other types of firearms.
But despite their notorious role in mass shootings, AR-15s account for only a small fraction of overall gun-related deaths in the United States. Of the 45,222 deaths linked to guns in 2020, more than half were suicides; 43 percent were homicides. Nearly 60 percent of the 13,650 gun deaths classified as homicides involved handguns, according to the FBI; rifles accounted for only 3 percent.
Regulation of the AR-15 is extremely controversial. While federal efforts have largely been unsuccessful, many states have put their restrictions in place. The so-called assault-type weapons are banned in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Washington, D.C.-many times based upon specific models or military-type features. They also limit magazine capacities; similar restrictions have been imposed in Colorado and Vermont.
The national conversation around gun regulation is shifting. Reeher sees the trend shift from focusing on types of weapons to focusing on the type of people who should not be able to acquire them. Areas that might see more political consensus include tightening background checks, stricter rules on perpetrators of domestic violence, and improved mental health access.