Why do people call the AR-15 an "Automatic Rifle?" Or a "Weapon of war?" Or an "Assault rifle?" When it is none of those things?
Well, Fellow Patriot, I'm here to answer that "Existential Question." Read on...
An engineer and firearms designer named Eugene Stoner was commissioned by the ArmaLite Rifle Company, Chicago, Illinois, to design a replacement for the Army's M-14.
Which was itself a lightened version of the M-1 battle rifle, so successfully used during the Second World War. And the Korean Conflict. And the beginning of that little kerfuffle in Viet Nam.
The M-1 weighed 11 pounds. A beast. And was prone to rusting and jamming. And used a round so large it was hard to carry very many of them. The M-14, which I used while serving in the Army, weighed in at 9 pounds. And was itself a slimmed down version of the M-1. Still heavy and hard to manage. And used the same bullet and round as the M-1.
And Stoner was told to create a new, lightened rifle that could be easily carried and used. With a lighter round enabliing the soldier and airman to carry more of them, and easier. His answer weighed only 7 pounds. And was made of aluminum, plastic, and a composite fiberglass material, with the only steel used in its barrel and receiver.
It was patented on May 2, 1957 (SIXTY YEARS AGO). It was called the AR-10. After early trials by the Air Force, who commissioned it, it's name was changed to the M-16. The Air Force approved it and ordered thousands. ArmaLite could not produce such a large order. So they sold its patent, design and materials "lock, stock and barrel," as the term is used, to the Colt Manufacturing Company. Colt continued improving the rifle so that it perfomed better as a fully automatic, "weapon of war," then called the M-16. That was in 1959.
Colt began producing the new rifle for the military while also beginning to sell it to the public under the name "AR-15." While removing the fully automatic switch and making it "semi-automatic" (one trigger pull, a single bullet goes out the pointy end). That was in the early 1960's. And since then the public has embraced it beyond all expectations.
This background is provided primarily for those who've thought the "AR" prefix in its name stood for "Automatic Rifle." WRONG-O! It stands for "ARmaLite". It is not a "weapon of war" in the civilian version. It does not stand for "automatic rifle." It stands for ARmaLite. It is not designed to kill people. Rather, it was provided to the military with the much smaller .223 caliber, or the same as your granddad's .22 squirrel gun in the hall closet. The .223 bullet weighs only 60 grains, versus the 150 grains used by the .30 caliber rifles it replaces.
It replaced the "M-1" and "M-14" series .30-'06. The "30" stood for .30 caliber. The '06 stood for the year that caliber was first designed and patented (One Hundred Twenty Years Ago!). That caliber is still in wide usage by hunters for deer, bear, caribou, and moose. The .223 caliber replacing it is designed to wound, so that it takes 2 soldiers to carry the wounded man off the battlefield. Not to kill, to wound. We're just that nice. Let's congratulate ourselves.
The .223 is half the size of a .30 caliber round, and half the weight. Thus, a soldier can easily carry 100 rounds of .223 versus only about 40 rounds of .30 caliber it replaces. The "M" series can also be produced in .30 caliber, or about one-third of an inch in diameter. The same caliber as the AK-47 Kalashnikov, so widely used in 3rd world countries.
For all these reasons, the AR-15 is now the fastest selling firearm in the entire world. They are produced by more than 100 manufacturers. More than 40 million of them have been sold and are in use.
With the .223 caliber, they are the perfect gun for the target range. And also for small game, like the woodchuck and squirrel. When barreled for the .308 caliber, itself a smaller and lighter version of the .30-'06 round, they make the perfect deer, coyote and medium sized game rifle. When fitted with the .500 Blackout barrel and receiver, they are perfect for moose, bear and any large game animal. That's why they're so widely bought and used.
They are all things to all users.
And regardless of caliber, they are the best weapon for self-defense. Small, light, easy to load and use, plus being relatively inexpensive to acquire and shoot. They are available worldwide starting at about $800. If you don't already have one, this unassuming little blog posting should have convinced you by now to go out and buy one. Right now, in fact, I think I'll buy another one this afternoon.
From now on, this collection of facts should have convinced you to never again let anyone around you use the term "Assault Rifle" when speaking of the AR-15. Never let anyone call them "weapons of war," either. Or "automatic rilfes," which they are not. They are none of those things. And if you'd like to see one, I have three of them here at the Fortress you can see and touch. In three different calibers. And each with a telescopic sight. And by the time you get to Fortress Chuckmeister, I should have already purchased my fourth. In another caliber.*
Oh yeah, I was trained as a certified gunsmith and ballistician. I can build rifles and pistols, own a whole bunch of them, and know pretty much everything you need to know about them. So take what I say to the bank. More than 101 million of our households contain one or more of the 525 million firearms in service by Americans.** The average 911 call to our police is answered in 29 minutes. 29 MINUTES! Would your family still be alive by then? You are in charge of your family's safety. So join our other firearm owners and become capable of actually doing so...
* Like women and their shoes, men never have enough guns.
** FBI statistics, 2021.
