DESIGN: ARM YOURSELF WITH AN AR-15

The AR-15 if often mistaken for an assault rifle, but it’s nothing more than a semi-automatic sporting rifle. The AR prefix is often mistaken to stand for ‘assault rifle’ when it really stands for Armalite, the original company who owned the patent. They then sold it to Colt’s Manufacturing Co, a major firearms manufacturer in 1963. Though the AR looks almost identical to the military issue M16, The civilian AR is restricted to semi-automatic fire, as opposed to full-auto. the AR-15 has never been a weapon of war, period. Anybody who argues otherwise doesn’t float in a world of objective fact.

While we're talking facts— let’s discuss the breakdown of this piece & how the AR-15 revolutionized this firearms industry.

There’s a reason they instantly tossed these in every police cruiser in the country— increased mobility with a 16” barrel & 30 round spring-fed magazine. It was proven to work in the jungles of Vietnam, which meant it could easily peek around those corners take on urban guerrilla warfare no matter the size of the threat. The 16” barrel + the velocity of the 5.56 NATO/ 2.23 REM cartridges surely meant this thing was designed for your shots to land on target using those iron sights. Simple takedown & resilience meant you had the double convenience of not having to clean your gun often, but were able to take it apart in seconds when you had to. All of this along with an American designed patent surely meant this gun would make history— and it did, as the most commonly desired rifle amongst gun owners.

I’m not here to argue the politics of this gun— as far as I’m concerned, the gun debate’s been settled since 1791, the year the bill of rights was added to the constitution. You have a right to protect yourself & your family & you should never allow anybody to call you an extremist for exercising that right. As we see more and more anti-gun legislation proposed, I highly recommend donating to causes like Firearms Policy Coalition & Gun Owners of America, both of whom do tremendous work fighting against erosions on civil liberties. To learn more about gun culture & education, I can’t recommend guys like Garand Thumb & Hickok45 enough. Freedom is never more than a generation away from extinction— & the right to bear arms is a symbol of defiance that we’ll never allow the flame of liberty to go out.