The Jacksonville shooting has brought attention back to the AR-15-style rifle. The rifle, which weighs less than 5 pounds, doesn’t require much time and money on training and is one of the most customisable guns in the US markets.
Adding to the recent mass shooting mishaps is another case from Jacksonville, Florida. A young white man in his early 20s displayed his hatred of the Blacks and shot three Black people at a Dollar General Store in the city. The gunman then died by shooting himself with the same rifle.
According to the police personnel, the weapon used is the AR-15 styled with swastikas as design on it. However, this is not the first time that AR-15 has been used in public shootings.
Not very long ago, AR-15-styled guns were used in the mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.
The AR in AR-15 stands for ArmaLite Rifle. Designed in the mid-1950s by the California-based small arms manufacturer ArmaLite, the AR-15 originally produced a ‘select fire’ capability giving users the option to shoot in semiautomatic mode and fully automatic mode, which allowed continuous firing until the trigger was released.
The weapon also had a burst mode, which ejects three bullets per trigger pull. However, from 1994-2004, the Federal Assault Weapons Ban restricted the sales of AR-15.
With the US National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), a firearms trade association, introducing the phrase ‘modern sporting rifles’ in 2009, the AR-15 was quickly adopted by much of the industry.
However, the newer semi automatic rifle weapon was designed to be fired from the shoulder and shoot only a single bullet with each pull of the trigger.
Beginning in the 2010s, AR–15–style rifles became one of the "most beloved and most vilified rifles" in the United States, with a new abbreviation for AR turning to be ‘America’s Rifle’. Many gun enthusiasts began loving the weapon for it being one of the easiest and safest rifles in the US markets.
The rifle, which weighs less than 5 pounds, doesn’t require much time and money on training and is one of the most customisable guns in the US markets.
However, with the rising cases of public shootings using the AR-15 style, the rifle being made available for the civil markets is a question that can only be answered with time.