AR-15 style rifle

“You see this AR-15, she’s hot and she’s mean,She’s one son of a gun of a gun.”

“Consider your man card reissued. If it's good enough for the professional, it's good enough for you. Bushmaster. The world's finest commercial AR-platform rifle.”

“One of the greatest talents of the National Rifle Association and the gun industry has been their ability exploit high-profile events to pump up gun sales: Bill Clinton, the Brady Bill, the federal assault weapons “ban,” Y2K, September 11, and now, of course, Barack Obama. Regardless of the event, the solution remains the same: buy a gun. And if industry and gun fan mags are any indication, it should be an AR-15 assault rifle.”

“What the gun industry has done is sort of appeal to the inner soldier, the insurrectionist feelings and high-tech desires to market these military-style guns. Now, they don't call them assault rifles. They have a couple of terms they use. They call them tactical rifles. They call them modern sporting rifles. I personally don't care what you call them; they are basically assault rifles, and their purpose is to kill people.”

“The grotesque irony? The National Shooting Sports Foundation locale. They’ve taken the lead in working to rebrand assault weapons as modern sporting rifles.”

“The Washington Post style guide describes the AR-15 as a "modern assault weapon."”

“Assault weapons were designed for and should be used on our battlefields, not on our streets. There is no inalienable right to own and operate 100-round clips on AR-15 assault rifles.”

“It's just a fact that hunting has been in serious decline, so those kinds of guns just don't sell as well. Well, you're in business, you got to sell something. These assault rifles — these military-style rifles — appeal to a broader range of people.”

“AR-style modern sporting rifles are a major contributor to the success of the American firearms industry, no question.”

“Very little separates a civilian AR-15 from the M-16s that are the standard-issue rifle for the American military. The military versions are semi-automatic, but also come with the ability to fire in a three-round burst; this feature is rarely used.”

“The AR-15 platform, usually a .223-caliber rifle with a 30-round magazine, is popular because of its ease of use and cleaning, and its reliability.”

“There were a lot of guns that our shooter could have chosen from his arsenal and his mother’s arsenal. He chose the AR-15. He was aware of how many shots it could get out, how lethal it was, how it would serve his objective of killing as many people as possible in as short a time as possible...and the manufacturers need to be held responsible for that.”

“Our father, Eugene Stoner, designed the AR-15 and subsequent M-16 as a military weapon to give our soldiers an advantage over the AK-47. He died long before any mass shootings occurred. But, we do think he would have been horrified and sickened as anyone, if not more by these events.”

“One looks like a grenade went off in there. The other looks like a bad knife cut.”

“The gun barely moves. You can sit there boom boom boom and reel off shots as fast as you can move your finger.”

“I’d also like to, I may get in trouble with other members of the committee, just say how insane it is that in the United States of America a civilian can go out and buy a semiautomatic assault rifle like an AR-15.”

“A little bullet pays off so much in wound ballistics. That is what people who choose these weapons know.”

“The AR-15 was developed in the late 1950s as a civilian weapon by Eugene Stoner, a former Marine working for small California startup called ArmaLite (which is where the AR comes from). The gun, revolutionary for its light weight, easy care and adaptability with additional components, entered the mainstream in the mid-1960s, after Colt bought the patent and developed an automatic-fire version for troops in Vietnam, called the M16.”

“Production of AR-style guns has soared since the federal ban expired. In 2004, 107,000 were made. In 2015, the number was 1.2 million, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), an industry trade association....Today, one of out of every five firearms purchased in this country is an AR-style rifle, according to a NSSF estimate. Americans now own an estimated 15 million AR-15s, gun groups say.”

“All right. So here's the plan. I'm gonna go take Uber in the afternoon before 2:40. From there I'll go into the --onto school campus, walk up the stairs, unload my bags and get my AR and shoot people down at the main -- what is it? -- the main courtyard, wait, and people will die.”

“Today is the day. The day that it all begins. The day of my massacre shall begin. All the kids in school will run and fear and hide. From the wrath of my power they will know who I am....With the power of my AR-15 you will all know who I am.”

“Hello. My name is Nick and I'm gonna be the next school shooter of 2018. My goal is at least 20 people with an AR-15 and a couple tracer rounds. I think I can do -- get done. Location is Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, Florida. It's gonna be a big event. And when you see me on the news, you'll all know who I am (laughing). You're all going to die. Pew, pew-pew, pew, pew, pew, pew. Ah, yeah. Can't wait.”

“All of these military-style semiautomatic weapons have something else in common. They have been heavily marketed as home-defense and marksmanship weapons, and their sales have been a major driver of profits for gun manufacturers over the past two decades.”

“I have hunted all my life...but an AR-15 is not for hunting. It’s for killing.”

“The AR-15, the military-style rifle that a gunman used to kill 17 people at a South Florida high school Wednesday, is at once a ferociously powerful weapon, a symbol of freedom and individualism, and an object of despairing worry about the future of democracy.It is, depending on which political and social camp you belong to, “America’s rifle,” a way to “Control Your Destiny” or a killing machine that has no legitimate place in civilian life.”

“They’re accurate and they can basically shoot as quickly as you can pull the trigger. Along those lines, they’re very customizable — most average people can figure out how to install accessories like forward trigger grips that let you hold the gun at waist height and spray bullets while stabilizing the gun, laser sights, and you can add high-capacity magazines.”

“The ability to add a high-capacity magazine to the rifles is certainly one factor that makes them attractive to people looking to commit mass murder. A 30-round magazine is fairly standard with MSRs (although some states cap the capacity to 10 or 15 rounds), but "drums" holding as many as 100 rounds are also available.”

“The problem is not owning an AR-15, it’s the person who owns it.”

“Certainly nobody under 21 should have an AR-15.”

“If all of a sudden, you couldn't buy an AR-15, what would you lose? Would you feel as though your Second Amendment rights would be eroded because you couldn't buy a God-darn AR-15?”

“The AR-15 assault rifle was engineered to create what one of its designers called "maximum wound effect." Its tiny bullets – needle-nosed and weighing less than four grams – travel nearly three times the speed of sound. As the bullet strikes the body, the payload of kinetic energy rips open a cavity inside the flesh – essentially inert space – which collapses back on itself, destroying inelastic tissue, including nerves, blood vessels and vital organs.”

“It’s a perfect killing machine...A handgun [wound] is simply a stabbing with a bullet. It goes in like a nail...[With the high-velocity rounds of the AR-15] it's as if you shot somebody with a Coke can.”

“The tissue destruction is almost unimaginable. Bones are exploded, soft tissue is absolutely destroyed. The injuries to the chest or abdomen — it’s like a bomb went off...Bystanders are traumatized just seeing the victims. It’s awful, terrible. It’s just a ghastly thing to see.”

“You will see multiple organs shattered. The exit wounds can be a foot wide. I’ve seen people with entire quadrants of their abdomens destroyed.”

“You will typically see a small penetrating wound. Then you roll the patient over and you see a huge exit wound...Then the bullet starts tumbling, causing more and more destruction...If they are shot in the torso, there often is not a whole lot we can do...These weapons are meant to kill people.”

“Going up against the country’s largest gun lobby organization was obviously something that needed to be done, but it means that the people we’re arguing against are the ones with the guns. I am personally deathly afraid of them, and I know, from traveling the country during the summer for the Road to Change tour, that many of the people who disagree with us mean it when they say that they only want to talk if we’re standing on the other end of their AR-15s.”

“...a bomb went off on the inside. And our job is to go in there and clean it up....At some point it's like putting Humpty Dumpty back together again...his organs are now in different pieces and you have to reconstruct them. The arm was missing soft tissue, skin, muscle and part of the nerves were damaged. The bowel has to be put back together some of the areas of injury has to heal itself so you can see that he can walk around like a normal child and behave as normal as possible.”

“Pennsylvania lawmakers held a joint session of the state’s General Assembly to remember the victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue attack.Under the legislation, the AR-15 assault-style rifle used by the synagogue gunman would be banned.”

“The AR-15 was likened to "weapons of war" by then-President Obama in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, where 29-year-old Omar Mateen slaughtered 49 people and wounded 53 others in June 2016. And it's the same rifle that keeps appearing again and again as a murder weapon in mass shootings.”

“Newtown. San Bernardino. Las Vegas. Sutherland Springs. And now, Parkland. Five of the six deadliest mass shootings of the past six years in the United States. In each of them, the gunman had an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.”

“AR-15-style rifles have been used in recent mass shootings at in Aurora, Colo.; Santa Monica and San Bernardino, Calif.; Orlando, Florida and now Parkland.”

“Manliness means violent domination, a point not lost on gun manufacturers. Bushmaster, the maker of the AR-15 rifle — which has been at the center of many mass shootings — advertised the gun with a “Consider Your Man Card Reissued” tagline.”

“His killing machine of choice was a mass murderer's best friend — and his enabler a gun lobby that has long opposed efforts to keep assault weapons out of the hands of blood-thirsty maniacs. The madman who killed at least 50 people and wounded 53 others at an Orlando club early Sunday was armed with an AR-15-type rifle.”

“America has grown accustomed to military-style semi-automatic weapons such as the AR-15. It's not hard to see why: These firearms have been heavily marketed to gun owners. But at the same time, they're often the weapons of choice for mass murderers.”

“The AR-15 is America’s most popular rifle. It has also been the weapon of choice in mass shootings from Sandy Hook to Aurora to San Bernardino.”

“The AR-15, the type of rifle used in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, is the weapon of choice for mass killers...Unfortunately, the compact, easy-to-use lethality of the AR-15 has made it the weapon of choice in mass shootings.”

“AR-15 style rifles have been the weapon of choice in many recent mass shootings, including the Texas church shooting Sunday, the Las Vegas concert last month, the Orlando nightclub last year and Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.”

“The N.R.A. calls the AR-15 the most popular rifle in America. The carnage in Florida on Wednesday that left at least 17 dead seemed to confirm that the rifle and its variants have also become the weapons of choice for mass killers.”

“While AR-15 style rifles have become the weapon of choice for some of America’s most recent and deadly mass shootings, these military-style guns are still comparatively rarely used in everyday gun violence. Between 2010 and 2014, only 3.55% of gun murders were carried out with any kind of rifle, according to a Guardian analysis of FBI data. The majority of gun murders are still committed with handguns.”

“It adds insult to the literal injuries and loss of life suffered by today's victims that even though the killer was known to be too dangerous to have guns, his father chose to rearm him including, reportedly, with the AR-15 used this morning, a weapon of war that now happens to be the weapon of choice in far too many mass killings in America.”

“They are Barbies for boys.”

“Smith & Wesson is one of many firearms manufacturers to produce a version of the AR-15, marketing more than a dozen models that range in price from about $700 to $2,000.The weapon is popular among collectors, military veterans and target shooters who say it is easy to handle and can be modified in numerous ways. Some soldiers call it “a Barbie doll for men” because it has a wide range of accessories and replacement parts, including different styles of barrels, stocks, magazines and scopes.”

“Enthusiasts praise the AR-15 rifle as lightweight, durable, accurate and, compared with other long guns, gentle in its kick. They describe the rifle as a gadget geek's dream—the "Barbie doll" of firearms, as one gun dealer described it—because of an array of accessories that allow it to be easily customized.”

“This is the man's Barbie doll — you know, the Mr. Potato Head of firearms, because you can interchange so many different things to make it customized to you, to be able to make it comfortable when you shoot.”

“For the most part all those add-ons are primarily cosmetic (folding stocks, bayonet mounts, pistol grips, etc.), which is why some AR-15 enthusiasts like to call them Barbie Dolls for Men.”

“Enthusiasts sometimes describe the AR-15 as “the man’s Barbie doll,” an almost infinitely malleable collectible that owners can accessorize with infrared scopes, grips, flashlights and other add-ons.”

“The AR-15 was likened to "weapons of war" by then-President Obama in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, where 29-year-old Omar Mateen slaughtered 49 people and wounded 53 others in June 2016. And it's the same rifle that keeps appearing again and again as a murder weapon in mass shootings.”

“This is an instrument of war designed for the battlefield that is marketed and sold to the general public.”

“The specifications of assault-style rifles vary depending on ammunition, but many tests put the muzzle velocity of a standard round from an AR-15 at 3,200 feet per second, making it accurate up to 500 yards ― more than a quarter-mile. This makes rounds from an AR-15 or other assault-style weapons far more devastating than those fired from small-caliber handguns.”