Mass shootings were down in the decade that followed, compared to the decade before (1984-94) and the one after (2004-14), but they did not end entirely.Īfter the assault-weapons ban expired in 2004, gun makers quickly reintroduced them and sales were brisk. In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed an assault-weapons ban, which outlawed the AR-15 and other similar semiautomatic rifles. The Las Vegas shooter had a bump stock, which brought the device to national attention, and has led to calls to ban it in the current gun debate. However, a bump stock - a legal device in many places - can be added to a semiautomatic weapon to approximate an automatic rifle.
since the 1934 National Firearms Act, which was directed against machine guns at the time. In contrast, a shooter with a fully automatic assault rifle can pull and hold the trigger and the weapon will keep firing until the ammunition supply is exhausted.įully automatic weapons have been tightly restricted in the U.S. The gun industry, gun owners and their supporters say AR-15s are used for hunting, target practice and shooting competitions and should remain legal.īecause AR-15-style weapons are semiautomatic, the shooter must pull the trigger to fire each shot from a magazine that often holds 30 rounds. They say it has no valid recreational use, and civilians should not be allowed to own them. Gun control advocates say the difference is minimal, arguing the AR-15, like its military version, is designed to kill people quickly and in large numbers - hence the term assault-style rifle. Randy Bean, whose fellow officer was gunned down with an AR-15 in 1991, looks on.ĪR-15-style semiautomatic weapons are civilian versions of military weapons. President Bill Clinton holds an AR-15 rifle during a White House ceremony in 1994 where he launched efforts to ban assault-style weapons. The shooter killed six people and then took his own life. Police say the gunman actually used a Smith and Wesson M&P15, that manufacturer's version of the AR-15.ĪR-15-style rifles were around for more than 40 years before one was used in a mass killing, at an apartment in Crandon, Wis., in 2007.
Which brings us back to our original question about the weapon used in Florida, which is commonly described as an AR-15. The National Rifle Association estimates there are some eight million AR-15s and its variations in circulation, and says they are so popular that the "AR" should stand for " America's Rifle." These weapons can go for less than $1,000, though they can be customized and cost in the thousands of dollars. Those gun makers gave the weapons their own names, yet the popularity of the AR-15 turned it into a generic term for all types of AR-15-style rifles. When Colt's patents for the AR-15 expired in the 1970s, other manufacturers began making similar models. It was known as the M-16.Īrmed with that success, Colt ramped up production of a semiautomatic version of the M-16 that it sold to law enforcement and the public, marketed as the AR-15. military selected Colt to manufacture the automatic rifle that soon became standard issue for U.S.
But, he added, "We've just decided that based on what's happened and with these guns, we don't want to be part of this story." "I'm a gun owner myself," Ed Stack, the company's chief executive officer, told ABC's Good Morning America. This has reignited the debate about their widespread availability.ĭick's Sporting Goods announced Wednesday that it would no longer sell these assault-style weapons. Yet over the past decade, the AR-15 and its offshoots have been used in many of the country's worst mass shootings. And we'll explain in a moment.įor more than a half-century, the AR-15 has been popular among gun owners, widely available in gun stores and, for many years, even appeared in the Sears catalog. What weapon did the gunman use in the recent shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida? The semi-automatic rifle has been sold to the public since the 1960s and the NRA estimates that around 8 million AR-15s and related models are in circulation. John Jackson, co-owner of Capitol City Arms Supply, with an AR-15 rifle for sale at his store in Springfield, Ill., in 2013.
0 kommentar(er)
