Light yet lethal: America’s craze for AR-15 continues despite bloody recoil in mass shootings

Maine governor Janet Trafton Mills is either fatuous or plain ignorant. She breathed “a sigh of relief” on 20 October after United States (US) Army reservist Robert R Card II, who shot dead 18 people and injured another 13 with an AR-15 in Lewiston city two days ago, died apparently of self-inflicted gunshot. “Card is no longer a threat to anyone … Now, is a time to heal,” she told the media. Neither the threat has receded nor Maine, like other states, can heal as long as the American gun culture is celebrated despite bloody consequences and laws aren’t implemented. Maine’s laws prohibit a mentally incompetent person from owning a firearm. According to the police, a “paranoid” Card was in a mental health facility for two weeks at a psychiatric hospital in July after “hearing voices”. Moreover, he legally purchased several guns, including an AR-15, with some bought several days before the attack. Obviously, the threat was ignored despite officers from the Sagadahoc County and Kennebec County Sheriff’s Offices trying to contact Card after a fellow soldier was concerned that he would “ snap and commit a mass shooting”, CNN reported. Second, Mills is a Democrat. Her party wants to ban assault weapons with President Joe Biden taking the lead. However, 15 per cent of Democrats don’t favour banning both assault rifles and high-capacity magazines holding more than 10 rounds, according to a June Pew Research survey. In fact, Maine representative Jared Golden (D-Maine) earlier opposed such a ban until Card’s massacre. Though Maine comparatively has had few shootings than in other states, the US has reported 565 mass shootings this year, 645 in 2022 and 690 in 2021, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an online database of gun violence incidents in the US. As per the data, 706 people died in these incidents in 2021, the highest number of gun deaths, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Revered and reviled: America’s staple rifle The Maine shooting has brought back the focus on the dreaded yet America’s most popular semiautomatic rifle AR-15, available for around $400. Though undoubtedly an assault rifle, calling it Assault (A) Rifle (R)-15 is a misnomer. The ‘A’ and R’ stand for the ArmaLite company, which designed the self-loading rifle in 1956. In 1963, ArmaLite sold the patent to Colt, which modified it to fully automatic mode as M16 for use in the Vietnam War. When Colt’s patent expired in 1977, other gunmakers started manufacturing and selling AR-15s or AR-15-style rifles—even to civilians. From the Army’s assault rifle in the late 1950s to the common American’s staple weapon, the AR-15 is owned by around 16 million people, according to a The Washington Post/Ipsos polls. The AR-15 symbolises a gory commitment to the Second Amendment with some House Republicans endorsing the assault rifle by sporting lapel pins shaped like it in February—Georgia representative Andrew Clyde and his colleagues George Santos (New York) and Anna Paulina Luna (Florida). “I hear that this little pin that I’ve been giving out on the House floor has been triggering some of my Democratic colleagues,” Clyde had said in a video posted on X. “Well, I give it out to remind people of the Second Amendment of the Constitution and how important it is in preserving our liberties.”

Apparently I’ve been triggering some of my Democrat colleagues… pic.twitter.com/3qJB1bRuBP

— Rep. Andrew Clyde (@Rep_Clyde) February 2, 2023

In the same month, Alabama representative Barry Moore introduced a Bill to declare the AR-15 the “National Gun of America”. The AR-15 isn’t a mere rifle; it’s an American icon of immense political and cultural significance, especially after the military’s glorification post-9/11, backed by the National Rifle Association and the gun lobby. The spiking mass shootings have failed to deter the AR-15’s sales and popularity. According to the FBI’s 2019 crime data, the rifle’s sales increased after every school shooting. Of all guns produced in 2020, AR-15s comprised 23.4 per cent compared to a mere 1.2 per cent in 1990, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). When civilians were allowed to own it, the lethal AR-15 was meant for hunting, shooting competitions or home defence. Light, accurate, simple, reliable, easy to modify and maintain, and with minimum recoil, the AR-15 appeals to Americans. However, the weapon became the favourite killing machine of mass shooters, several of whom were mentally deranged. According to the Post, gunmen used the AR-15 in 10 of the 17 bloodiest shootings—Las Vegas (Nevada) 60 dead, 2017; Newtown (Connecticut), 27 dead, 2012; Sutherland Springs (Texas), 25 dead, 2017; Uvalde (Texas), 21 dead, 2022; and Parkland (Florida), 17 dead, 2018. Since 2010, assault rifles have been used in 34 per cent of mass shootings and 59% in the last three years, data collected by The Violence Project, a nonprofit organisation tracking mass shootings, shows. In the Las Vegas shooting, of the 24 firearms Stephen Paddock used to kill 60 people, 14 were AR-15-type rifles chambered in .223 Remington. AR-15’s killer round is the devil In the 1950s, NATO wanted a cartridge that could be used in every member nation’s standard army rifle. Adaptability and cheap and easy procurement guided the hunt for a universal round that zeroed in on the 7.62x51mm cartridge as against 7.62x39mm used in Soviet Kalashnikovs. NATO adopted the 7.62x51mm due to its stopping power, accuracy and range despite being heavy, expensive and recoil. For example, the M14, widely used by the US Army in Vietnam before the M16, was chambered in the 7.6. Gradually, the US Army realised the disadvantages of the 7.62. The biggest disadvantage was its size and weight, meaning few rounds could be carried. By 1957, the Pentagon’s hunt for a unique round started—small but powerful, light but damaging and high velocity but strong enough to penetrate a ballistic helmet beyond 500 yards. Remington found the solution by converting its .222 round into .222 Special, which was named .223 Remington. Eventually, firearms manufacturer FN dubbed it the 5.56x45mm NATO, which was small, weighed less, had less recoil and cheap compared to the 7.62x51mm. The 5.56 causes more damage than the 7.62. Lighter, faster, flatter and more aerodynamic and damaging, the NATO 5.56 beats the Russian 7.62 in every way except energy. In speed, the .56’s muzzle velocity at 500 yards is 1,523 feet/second compared to the 7.62 at 1,233 (a 62-grain powder load 5.56 vs a 123-grain 7.62). The 5.56’s trajectory, measured in ballistic coefficient (the measure of a body’s ability to overcome air resistance in flight), at an elevation of 500 yards is -54.17, as against the 7.62’s -95.48. When a 5.56 is fired, the lighter and faster bullet retains more of its velocity, meaning it is not pulled by gravity as quickly as a 7.62, which starts to drop quickly after 200 yards. The trajectory factor also lets an AR-15 user take down targets at longer ranges. For example, Paddock aimed from his 32nd-floor suites in the Mandalay Bay hotel. In terms of recoil, the 7.62 is twice compared to the 5.56. For instance, the 5.56x45 Federal American Eagle 55gr FMJBT’s 3.54 (feet lbs, or foot-pound force) recoil is extremely mild compared to 7.62x39 Federal American Eagle 124gr FMJ’s 6.97. Recoil becomes more important if the shooter fires hundreds of rounds and that too accurately. Paddock could fire more than 1,049 rounds from his AR-15s because of the 5.56’s mild recoil. Tissue and organ damage caused by a 5.56 is much more devastating than the 7.62 due to its velocity and trajectory. The entry wound is usually small but the bullet leaves a large destructive hole after exiting while destroying the tissue and an organ. And if the round tumbles before hitting the target, the damage is greater. The AR-15’s versatility in being chambered in various calibres also makes it the favourite weapon of mass shooters. The rifle can be chambered in various bullets: .204 Ruger .223 Remington .22 Nosler .224 Valkyrie .25-45 Sharps 6.5 Grendel 6.8 SPC .300 Blackout .300 Ham’r .30 Remington AR .350 Legend .450 Bushmaster Bump stock turns AR-15 into fully automatic Fully automatic weapons in the US aren’t banned. A prospective buyer needs to fulfil certain conditions to purchase such a weapon—though the process is lengthy and expensive. The amended Firearms Owners Protection Act, 1986, bans ownership of any machine gun manufactured after 19 May, 1986. A person classified as “prohibited” can’t own or possess an automatic arm—a felon or illegal alien, convicted of any crime punishable by more than a year in prison and under indictment for such a crime, fugitive, mentally unsound, dishonourably discharged from the military or has renounced American citizenship. Other conditions include, at least, 21 years of age, being a legal resident of the US and legally eligible to purchase a firearm, passing a BATFE background check with a typical process time of 8-10 months and paying a one-time $200 transfer tax. The price factor is also a big reason for civilians opting for semiautomatic weapons as machine guns manufactured before 1986 cost $6,000-$10,000 due to their rare availability. Here comes the bump stock. Bump firing uses a semiautomatic weapon’s recoil to fire rounds in rapid succession. A bump stock allows the gun’s stock to slide backward and forward turning it into automatic mode. The stock bumps the trigger against the finger, which allows the recoil and the constant forward pressure by the non-shooting arm to actuate the trigger. That’s how Paddock could fire more than 1,000 rounds in 11 minutes with 13 of his 18 rifles fitted with bump stocks. In March 2018, then-president Donald Trump directed the Department of Justice to define bump stocks as “machine guns” following the outrage triggered by their use in the Las Vegas Shooting. Subsequently, the ATF imposed a nationwide ban on bump stocks. Under the new rule, possession of a bump stock is a federal felony that can result in a 10-year jail and a penalty of up to $250,000. However, in January this year, the 5th Circuit Court  in  Cargill vs Garland held that bump stocks don’t change the mechanics of a semiautomatic rifle as a single squeeze of the trigger doesn’t fire multiple bullets. In April, the  6th Circuit Court revoked the ban in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. Successive governments—Democrats or Republicans—haven’t sincerely tried to ban the AR-15s despite the Second Amendment in The Bill of Rights, 1791_, not protecting assault rifles._ “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,” the Amendment states. It’s been 232 years since the amendment. The world’s oldest democracy has a proper government and Army with the president as the commander-in-chief. It’s not the 1700s, when classical republicanism favoured a “well-regulated” militia fearing that the standing armies could take over the government. In that era, militias comprised ordinary citizens, expected to have their weapons. In the US vs Miller, 1939, US Supreme Court Justice James McReynolds ruled that the Second Amendment didn’t protect the transportation of a double-barrelled 12-gauge Stevens shotgun less than 18 inches long. “In the absence of any evidence tending to show that possession or use of a shotgun having a barrel of less than 18 inches in length at this time has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a ‘well-regulated militia’, we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument,” McReynolds ruled. “Certainly, it is not within judicial notice that this weapon is any part of the ordinary military equipment or that its use could contribute to the common defence,” he added. “With the obvious purpose to assure the continuation and render possible the effectiveness of such forces, the declaration and guarantee of the Second Amendment were made. It must be interpreted and applied with that end in view,” the court ruled. The ruling should have been the guiding principle in disallowing the sale of the AR-15 to the general public. Shockingly, four in ten adults in the US have a gun in the household despite six in ten admitting that gun violence is a major problem and expect it to increase in the next five years, according to the Pew survey. The gun ownership numbers haven’t changed since the 2021 Pew survey. Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are more than twice as likely as Democrats and Democratic-leaners to own a gun (45 per cent vs 20 per cent). More Whites own a gun (38 per cent) compared to Blacks (24 per cent), Hispanics (20 per cent) and Asians (10 per cent). While 60 per cent say gun violence is a very big problem, up 9 percentage points since 2022, 23 per cent feel it “moderately big”, 13 per cent “either a small problem” and 4 per cent “not a problem at all”. Though a majority of adults in both partisan coalitions somewhat or strongly favour policies restricting gun access to the mentally unstable (88 per cent of Republicans and 89 per cent of Democrats) and increasing the minimum age for buying firearms to 21 years old (69 per cent vs 90 per cent), Republicans and Democrats differ on several other proposals. While 85 per cent of Democrats favour banning both assault-style weapons and magazines with more than 10 rounds, a majority of Republicans oppose these proposals—57 per cent and 54 per cent, respectively. After the Maine shooting, Biden rightly asked, “Who the hell needs an assault weapon that can hold, in some cases, up to 100 rounds?” The writer is a freelance journalist with two decades of experience and comments primarily on foreign affairs. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost_’s views._ Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.