Jeff Goldstein tells the story;
The first mass produced AR-15 was called the Colt Sporter. It was a civilian rifle, no matter how the revisionists try to airbrush out its history.
More, it’s a single pull, single shot weapon, much like a pistol. Or a musket.
It is NOT a “weapon of war” — unless it has the ability to switch to burst fire — at which point it’s an M16.
The .223 round is small. In fact,
“when you’re talking about rifles, the AR-15’s .223 / 5.56mm ammunition is considered so low powered that it is banned from hunting large game like deer and elk because it cannot humanely take them down in one shot like most other rifle calibers can.“In some states like Washington, all big game must be hunted with a minimum of .24 caliber ammunition – relegating the AR-15 to small game and varmint duty exactly because it is a low-powered rifle.”
As I’ve noted repeatedly here, most hunting rifles use .300 or .308 — a significantly larger round.
So. The anti-gun folks who demonize the AR-15 are demonizing a weapon that is not terribly “high powered”, is not an “assault rifle,” and uses smaller rounds than most game hunters.
Meaning, they object to the customizable nature of the platform and its cosmetics. That you can attach a laser or scope or flashlight to the rifle makes you more likely to hit what you’re aiming at, and so less likely to hit targets you don’t mean to hit. An adjustable stock allows women or smaller men to handle the weapon more comfortably and with better control, adding another aid to shooting.
To listen to the gun grabbers, therefore, you’d think their aim is to make sure Americans can only own higher powered weapons that offer less in the way of safety, control, and precision.
