Vote on the next question we should answer at Ask The Trace. Alex Yablon was a reporter at The Trace. Investigating gun violence in America. The Trace. Ricochet American lives, shaped by guns. Donate We report stories that would go untold. Newsletter Sign up now to get our latest stories and eye-opening briefings.
Twitter Facebook Instagram. By Alex Yablon. The Trace Stay informed. Never miss a big story. Subscribe now. Chandler realized that his family had no weapon to defend itself, and decided to buy a gun when he got old enough. When he turned 21 and began shopping, Maryland tightened laws in response to the December mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. That measure banned many types of semiautomatic rifles, so when Chandler eventually decided that he wanted an AR, he built one from scratch, adhering to the new restrictions.
On one of his recent visits to a gun range, Chandler showed what made the AR a cutting-edge gun when it was created, and one reason why it became so widespread.
Pushing the gun's "takedown pins" with his fingers, he broke his gun down into its basic components, and within several seconds snapped it back together. This is why some people compare the AR to a car chassis, others to Legos or Mr.
Potato Head. Those who build ARs from scratch link themselves to a centuries-old American gunsmithing tradition. Building an AR at home often begins with buying a "lower receiver," the only part with a serial number and that requires a federal background check.
The rest of the core parts are available online. Then there is a seemingly endless array of accessories: barrels, grips, stocks, rails, magazines and scopes. Chandler loves the AR he built. He admires its simple, efficient mechanics, its precision, and how much fun it brings. He fires almost weekly for target practice, along with a Glock 17 handgun. Chandler, who is black, doesn't have many friends who enjoy guns as much as he does. So he has created a firearm-focused Instagram page to find similarly minded people, many of them millennial first-generation gun owners like himself.
The hashtag ar15 has over 1. This new generation of gun owners, who show off their accessorized rifles on social media — and often seek sponsorship deals with manufacturers — are a reflection of how conventional the AR has become. But gun-control advocates say the industry has exploited people's fears and desires, promoting a gun originally designed to kill people. They argue that ARs and similar guns cause more damage, and death, when used in mass shootings. Related: Fate of Sandy Hook lawsuit against gun maker could be decided by a slingshot.
Since the time of the federal ban, attempts to restrict gun sales have met with mixed success, with tighter restrictions on people accused of domestic violence but wider acceptance of concealed carry. Are people like me bloodthirsty savages?
Delusional survivalists? Military fetishists? Insecure men with tiny … hands? If you're prepared to answer "yes" to all of the above and consider the case closed, then please move on and don't read anymore.
This article isn't my attempt to justify anything to you — it's not a defense of what's in my gun safe or of the AR itself. If, for you, my AR ownership is prima facie evidence of my mental instability, sexual inadequacy , lack of a conscience, or what-have-you, then I honestly don't care what you think about this issue.
You can go back to broadcasting your own moral superiority on social media, and I can go back to tuning you out until your rage therapy session is over. No, this article is for the genuinely curious — those who assume that 5 million of their fellow Americans are not inhuman or insane, and who want to understand what set of rationales, no matter how flawed and confused they may ultimately turn out to be, could make an otherwise normal person walk out of a gun store with an "assault weapon.
By the end of this piece, you probably still will not believe that I or any other civilian actually needs an AR That's fine — I wasn't really out to change your mind on that score anyway.
I get that you still believe that no civilian should have such a gun. My only hope is that you'll go forth better equipped to talk about gun control based on an understanding of how real live people view and use these firearms. Note: Before I get started, if you're like Rep. Alan Grayson or Sen. Bernie Sanders , both of whom I admire greatly and neither of whom seems to know the difference between a fully automatic weapon and a semiautomatic weapon, then we should get something straight before going any further: The AR is not an "automatic weapon.
In contrast, the AR's military sibling, the M16, is capable of fully automatic fire, which means that the gun will keep spitting out bullets as long as the trigger is pressed and the magazine is loaded.
The AR was originally designed as a weapon of war, for man-killing and not for hunting or for target shooting — this is an obvious fact. But this is also true of most popular firearms throughout history, including your grandpa's lever action hunting rifle.
The vintage Henry lever action rifle — the quintessential 20th century deer rifle — was originally deployed to devastating effect in the Civil War. With its high capacity, rapid rate of fire, and popularity with soldiers and civilians alike, the Henry was the AR of its day, and it was followed over the years by the invention of the even more effective semiautomatic firearm, and then by a succession of long guns that we now generally take to be suitable for civilian use.
The AR, the gun behind some of the worst mass shootings in America, explained. My point in bringing up the lever action rifle is that civilians have been buying "weapons of war" for a very long time, since the black powder musket days. This is partly because soldiers who come home from wars to enter civilian life often want to buy a version of the weapon they were trained on and trusted their life to. And it's also because "military grade" is widely if sometimes mistakenly understood to mean "this technology has been tested in the real world, the kinks have been worked out, and its reliability and effectiveness have been proven in the field by an entity with the resources of an entire nation at its disposal.
Thus it is that since the dawn of the gunpowder age, gun buyers have snapped up military hardware, because that is often the very best hardware they can get their hands on. In this respect, today's AR buyers are no different than yesteryear's lever action rifle buyers. This is all part of the reason why I, a civilian, own a military-grade combat weapon. I don't want to shoot and miss; I don't want the gun to jam because it's dirty or cold; and when I'm hunting game I don't want to hit my target and then have it run off into the woods and die lost and wounded because I didn't "bring enough gun.
But, you'll argue, isn't the AR uniquely deadly? Unlike the lever action rifle, isn't the black rifle a weapon of godlike power, suitable only for putting as much lead on the battlefield in as short a time as possible?
And in their desire to own one of these turbocharged weapons of mass slaughter, which is clearly overkill for anything but mowing down herds of humans, aren't today's AR buyers uniquely twisted and callous? Isn't it time that gun buyers settled for second or third or fourth best, for the "good of the their fellow citizens"?
Currently only 5. Honestly I could sell the 9's and Dissipator and not miss them. I have 3 chambered in 5. But if those arent doing the job, thats what the AK is for.
And by the ruling stating above, I have 1 of those. I don't hunt. Don't carry them around. Don't take then shooting outside.
I only take them to an indoor range. Do I need either of them? Will I build another one? I don't know. I like them.
I would have to count to be sure. Used to have a whole bunch of ARs, but last Summer's boating accident Well, y'all get the picture. I have three. It was my first AR and use it for target shooting and is one of my HD weapons. I know it's not an easy round to acquire but I wanted it. Pretty much longer distance target shooting. All of them can be and would be used if SHTF scenario happens. I wanted different calibers just because, no hard core reasoning behind the choices. I'm thinking about doing a 6.
Three, two retros and one SPR. The retros are a and an XME2. I have 1 because I'm poor as hell. A few I love my guns.
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