This transformation - from made-for-combat weapon to mass-market behemoth and cultural flash point - is the product of a sustained and intentional effort that has forged an American icon.Ī Washington Post investigation found that the AR-15’s rise to dominance over the past two decades was sparked by a dramatic reversal in strategy by the country’s biggest gun companies to invest in a product that many in the industry saw as anathema to their culture and traditions. Sources: The Associated Press, USA Today, Northeastern University Mass Killing Database The modern AR-15 dominates the walls and websites of gun dealers. adults - or roughly 16 million people - own at least one AR-15, according to polling data from The Washington Post and Ipsos.Īlmost every major gunmaker now produces its own version of the weapon. Today, the AR-15 is the best-selling rifle in the United States, industry figures indicate. “We’d have NRA members walk by our booth and give us the finger,” said Randy Luth, the founder of gunmaker DPMS, one of the earliest companies to market AR-15s. Most gun owners also shunned the AR-15, dismissing it as a “black rifle” that broke from the typical wood-stocked long guns that were popular at the time. The National Rifle Association and other industry allies were focused on promoting traditional rifles and handguns. The industry’s biggest trade shows banished the AR-15 to the back. Gun executives doubted many buyers would want to spend their money on one. It seemed like overkill for home defense. troops in the Vietnam War, where the weapon earned a new name: the M16.īut few gunmakers saw a semiautomatic version of the rifle - with its shrouded barrel, pistol grip and jutting ammunition magazine - as a product for ordinary people. “An outstanding weapon with phenomenal lethality,” an internal Pentagon report raved. The rugged, powerful weapon was originally designed as a soldiers’ rifle in the late 1950s. The AR-15 wasn’t supposed to be a bestseller. For this reason, we refer to the rifle broadly as the AR-15 in this series. While Colt still holds the trademark, “AR-15” has become a ubiquitous term for a popular style of gas-operated, magazine-fed semiautomatic rifles. The patent expired, leaving many companies to produce their own weapons, commonly called AR-style rifles. Moultrie police had no other previous interactions with White, Chief Sean Ladson said.Colt acquired the AR-15 patent and trademark from Armalite in 1959. White fired back, but both men missed and no one was hurt, according to police. White had returned home on his lunch break when another man began shooting at him, Cato said. Moultrie Police investigator Nathan Cato told The Moultrie Observer that White had been involved in a gunfight on Tuesday at the home he shared with Arnold. Marshall was dead when police found her, while Arnold died later at a hospital.Īll three of the slain women appeared to have been shot multiple times, Colquitt County Coroner C. The footage then showed White step inside the restaurant and shoot himself.Īfter finding the shooting at the McDonald’s, police found White’s mother, 50-year-old Susie Arnold, and grandmother, 74-year-old Hilda Marshall, shot dead in their adjoining homes less than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) away. Security video from a McDonald’s in the south Georgia town of Moultrie showed Kentavious White, 26, shoot store manager Amia Smith, 41, after getting her to come to the door before dawn on Thursday morning, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said. (AP) - A man in Georgia who, police said, killed his workplace manager, mother and grandmother before taking his own life, had been involved in a gunfight less than 48 hours earlier, law enforcement said Friday.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |