The left is continuing their crusade against the AR-15, the firearm they love to hate. But as is usually the case with the left, their campaign against the AR-15 is devoid of facts.
Here are the top five myths about the AR-15.
1. It’s an assault rifle.
In order for a firearm to be considered an assault rifle, it needs to have the capability of selective fire: switching between semi-automatic and automatic settings. Civilian AR-15s only have the semi-automatic setting, so it cannot be considered an assault rifle.
Also the “AR” in AR-15 does not stand for assault rifle, it actually stands for ArmaLite Rifle, the name of the company that first invented the rifle.
2. It’s the weapon of choice for mass shootings.
A study conducted by Northeastern University concluded that AR-15s and other firearms that they considered to be “assault weapons” consisted of only 24.6 percent of mass shootings, while 47.9 percent of shootings were committed with handguns.
AR-15 isn’t even the gun of choice for most crimes:
It wasn’t used in Orlando and is used in exponentially fewer crimes than hand guns. Hands, feet, fists kill more. https://t.co/fVWUSe7htj
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) June 20, 2016
3. It can shoot 700 rounds a minute.
Rep. Alan Grayson’s (D-FL) embarrassingly absurd claim that an AR-15 can shoot 700 rounds in a minute has gone viral because it is impossible for an AR-15 to shoot that many rounds in a minute. Since an AR-15 is a semi-automatic, it can only fire the amount of the times somebody pulls a trigger. It would require a finger with superhuman speed to pull that feat off.
Additionally, most automatic weapons typically fire around 500-650 rounds a minute, so even if an AR-15 were an automatic weapon it likely wouldn’t be able to fire 700 rounds in a minute.
4. It can be easily changed into a machine gun.
It is actually not that easy to convert an AR-15 into an automatic weapon, especially since an AR-15 has a tendency to jam up and stall if it fires too quickly. It is also illegal to convert the AR-15 into an automatic weapon. There are legal methods that can make it easier to fire the trigger, but doesn’t necessarily turn it into an automatic weapon.
5. People don’t need an AR-15.
Actually it is a solid weapon to use for self-defense, since the user doesn’t need to constantly reload it like a single-shot shotgun. It’s also light and easy to use without much recoil. As Bearing Arms’s Bob Owens explains:
I have a simple yet effective “A2”-style flash suppressor on the end of the barrel. The slots in the flash suppressor direct burning propellant gasses away from my line of sight while also minimizing them, so that I can always see threats…My red dot sight does not offer any magnification, but I when I look through it, it places a bright red dot on potential threats that only I can see, day or night. I can easily keep both eyes open with this kind of sight, enhancing my peripheral vision so I can better see both potential threats that I might need to shoot, and more importantly, innocent bystanders.