6 Facts & Myths You Need to Know About the AR15
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| Three AR style rifles |
What You See on The News About the AR15
“Weapons of war!”, “the weapon of choice for mass shooters!”, and “ban deadly assault weapons!” they say without hesitation.
Tune into the news or read any article shortly after a gun-related tragedy and you’ll hear those lines being thrown around more often than Joe Biden forgets how to say “ATF”.
But what do they actually mean?
Do they hold any factual weight?
Is it really that cut and dry or is there more to it?
Short answer: yes, there’s way more to it.
We’re going to dive into the common myths about America’s most popular rifle, debunk those myths with actual facts (links to sources included, of course), and give you some other good-to-know tidbits to share to your AR-hating friends — they won’t listen to you anyway.
Backstory of the AR15
To learn more about the history of the AR15 and Eugene Morrison Stoner, the man associated with its design, read here.
An interesting historical fact was that the first batch of AR15s ever sold by Colt were to Malaysia in 1959 (known as the Federation of Malaya at the time).
Shout out to Malaysia!
Common Myths About the AR15
Claim: AR Stands for "Assault Rifle" or "Automatic Rifle."
Fact: The "AR" in AR15 does NOT stand for "Assault Rifle" or "Automatic Rifle" and is not even classified as either using industry standards.
It stands for ArmaLite 15 rifle. Assault rifles and automatic rifles are usually referencing rifles used by the military that have fully automatic firing capabilities such as the M16 and M4.
Additionally, the term “assault weapon” that you hear constantly being used has some legal legitimacy due to the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, but outside of that context, it holds no weight in the industry. It has been a fluid and constantly adapted term to describe a firearm that should be banned because it looks scary because of a pistol grip, magazine, or some other attachment.
Claim: AR15s are high-powered rifles.
Fact: AR15s fire .223/5.56x45mm cartridges. Compared to other rifle rounds, they are comparatively small and moderately powerful.
No, the .223 is not just like a .22 cartridge. While they have similar bullet diameters, the former packs a much bigger punch due to larger length, weight, and amounts of gunpowder.
I dare to even whisper the existence of the AR10 which fires the larger .308/7.62x51mm NATO round! Gun grabbers might go for that next!
Jokes aside, the .223 cartridge is considered a varmint round; effective for small-to-medium game hunting (more on that below). However, this does not take away from the fact that the cartridge is effective against human targets. What disproves that these rifles are “high-powered” are the countless other civilian and military rifles available that use much larger and more powerful cartridges (e.g., 6.5mm variants, .308/7.62x51mm NATO, .30-06, and .50 BMG).
Furthermore, the American Military is actively looking to replace the M4 platform with a platform that fires larger, more powerful 6.8mm rounds. There are documented reports of soldiers being frustrated with the M4’s inability to take down enemy targets at specific ranges and needing multiple hits. Adrenaline is a helluva chemical.
Claim: The AR15 uses high-capacity magazines.
Fact: The AR15 does not come with high-capacity magazines.
So some lawmaker in a blue state who probably has little to no experience with firearms just decided that anything more than 7-10 rounds is "high-capacity"? How about we just stick to industry standards that have been in place for the better part of a century.
AR platforms come standard with 30-round magazines when you purchase or are issued the rifle. Using rationale, if standard is 30 rounds, then high capacity would mean a number higher than that.
Saying otherwise is purely subjective conjecture.
While consumers are able to purchase higher-capacity magazines (e.g., 50-round magazines, 100-round drum magazines, etc.), these do not come standard with your rifles/carbines.
Say we humor those who want to ban these “high capacity” mags.
30-round magazines are so prolific in the industry (because they are the standard), that a ban on them wouldn’t work. If anything, it would push all remaining inventory onto the black market where only criminals would have access to them. So now, the law-abiding population is restricted in capacity while criminals are not.
Even if we limited the capacity to 20 rounds, people are still going to kill each other with 20-round mags. It’s not a stretch of the imagination to see that they will eventually be classified as the next “high-capacity” magazine that needs to be taken off the streets. In fact, this has already been done in NYC but shootings there continue to rise.
When is enough, enough? Who gets to make that decision that X amount of rounds is the perfect number for safety? People who want to commit acts of atrocity or criminal activity will do so whether it is banned or not.
Mass shootings are already quite rare in general (more on that below), so those calling for “common sense” gun laws to restrict magazine capacity when it’s not even the most prominent cause of gun deaths in the US is as un-common sense as you can imagine.
Another common talking point is the one saying you don’t need 30 rounds to hunt deer; this is ignorant as it can depend on the type of game you are hunting. You may not need a standard-capacity magazine to hunt deer, but you may find it common practice when hunting other game which have no hunting limitations and tend to gather in packs such as wild boar or coyotes.
Claim: AR15s are not suitable for hunting.
Fact: AR15s are extremely popular for hunting.
Just because they don’t look like your typical wood-furnished hunting rifle doesn’t mean they aren’t good for hunting.
As mentioned earlier, the caliber of ammunition used are considered varmint rounds, and they are commonly used by hunters globally for small to medium game. Some hunters are able to even take down deer with AR15s with a well-placed shot, although a larger caliber round is commonly recommended.
This is why the AR15 is one of the world’s most popular sporting/utility rifles in the country, as well as an effective home-defense weapon.
Claim: AR15s are the weapons of choice for mass shooters.
Fact: Sorry to burst your bubble, they're not. This is the most egregious lie. Handguns are actually the weapon of choice for mass shooters.
Statista has a great chart detailing the types of firearms used in mass shootings from 1982 to February 2022.
Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/476409/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-weapon-types-used/
Additionally, the New York Times published an article in 2015 reviewing the last 19 mass shootings. Of the 19, 11 of them didn’t use rifles of any kind.
Handguns were used exactly twice as many times as rifles were used.
Handguns are and have been the “weapon of choice” for mass shooters. The icing on the cake is that handguns are regulated more heavily than rifles and shotguns.
In another analysis by the New York Times, they noted at least 173 deaths from mass shootings with an AR15 in the last decade.
That’s 17.3 deaths per year from a mass shooting where an AR15 was used. To put it in perspective, there was an average of 13,657 homicides per year from 2007-17 per FBI statistics. Thus, deaths from AR15 mass shootings consisted of only 0.13% of those murders. They really are not living up to their name as "killing machines".
Source:
Lastly, in an analysis by Newsweek, they documented AR15s to be utilized in 21 of the last 80 mass shootings*. According to their analysis, this means AR15s mathematically cannot be the “weapon of choice” in mass shootings if they cannot even constitute the majority (26%). Math is hard, I get it.
*The federal government describes a mass shooting as at least four people being shot and killed. In Newsweek’s analysis, they used three killed as the minimum to constitute a mass shooting.
Source:
https://www.newsweek.com/ar-15-rifles-were-used-26-percent-last-80-mass-shootings-america-1578107
Claim: AR15s are weapons of war.
Fact: No, they're not. M4s and M16s, the military versions of the AR15 are used in combat. But hold your horses, there's more to it:
This is an interesting one for us.
Many gun rights activists will immediately retort the statement above, saying that the select-fire capabilities of the M4s and M16s are what make them “weapons of war” and an AR15 has never been issued as a service rifle to soldiers. While technically true, we want to give a more nuanced take on this.
Defenders and Disciples has a fantastic YouTube video addressing the bad talking points from both sides, and covers this “weapon of war” topic better than anyone else we’ve seen. We thank them for the inspiration.
Ask anyone who has been in a combat zone and more often than not, they will tell you they rarely ever used the fully automatic function on their service rifle, preferring the accuracy and ammo-conserving capabilities of semi-automatic fire. Thus, the military rifles firing in semi-auto really aren’t that different from a civilian AR15 firing in semi-auto.
I understand why pro-gun folks will say the AR15 is simply a sporting rifle because it doesn’t fire full-auto to abate the ever increasing encroachment of gun grabbers and end any further discussion, but we’re here to talk about the objective facts. Heck, there are some custom ARs out there that can absolutely out-perform a standard M4 when shooting in semi-auto.
“Aha! So you admit AR15s are weapons of war and must be banned!” is what your anti-gun friends are now saying. But as I said, technically-speaking they’re not. Practically-speaking, they can be similar. But that doesn’t mean they should be banned altogether. On the contrary, that is why it is so important for civilians to have them.
The Second Amendment guarantees us the right to keep and bear arms to oppose anything that would jeopardize the security of a free state - i.e., tyranny, foreign and domestic. If I want to be a check on an oppressive government regime, I would pray that I have a “weapon of war” in my hands, not my sporting rifle. The same reasoning applies if a posse of hoodlums decide my door is the one they want to knock on tonight. Sorry double-barreled shotgun, you're playing benchwarmer for both scenarios.
Additional Statistics in Reference to the AR15
Per FBI statistics, of the 72,781 total murders by firearms from 2015-19, rifles were used in only 2.16% of those murders (1,573). This includes ALL types of rifles, not just semi-automatics or AR15-style rifles. This is an average of 314.6 murders per year.
From 2015-19, knives, blunt objects, and hands and feet were used to commit significantly more murders in every single year than rifles: 4.91 times more murders with knives, 1.42 times more murders with blunt objects, and 2.13 times more murders with hands and feet.
Of the roughly 20 million rifles in circulation today, they were used in only 364 murders in 2019.
Source for all three bullet points: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/topic-pages/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-8.xls
Conclusion: Why Are There Misconceptions About the AR15?
There’s a lot of misconceptions being thrown around the mainstream media when it comes to the AR15—and firearms in general.
But the most important question is: why?
Why are they saying these things, intentionally or ignorantly?
Maybe a lot of these people really do believe it will solve gun violence (it won’t), and maybe it’s layers of deceit to coerce a civilian population to disarm themselves and relinquish their power to the government.
At the end of the day, no matter what their true intentions are, we at AAPIGO will never give up our God-given rights to protect ourselves and our loved ones.
Armed with our ARs, and more importantly our knowledge, we will continue to be a check on the powers of an overreaching government and local criminals alike.
We hope you will do the same.
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