The AR-15 has taken center stage in the American gun debate. But at its heart, the AR-15 is a rifle that has been modified to look and feel a certain way.
The emphasis on its appearance, however, has shaped how the country regulates firearms, to the frustration of many gun owners and gun control advocates alike.
The AR-15 is a semiautomatic rifle that usually shoots 5.56mm rounds. It has a detachable magazine so users can put in 5-, 10-, 30-, or even 60- and 100-round magazines.
The rifle that likely comes to mind is black and has any number of aftermarket attachments. Maybe there鈥檚 a grip attached under the barrel or a scope that, to some, might look like it鈥檚 made for a sniper. The rifle is easily customized and that鈥檚 part of its popularity. But it鈥檚 also the source of a running joke in the firearms community.
鈥淚 get ARs in here that weigh 20 pounds they have so much shit on them,鈥� said Jon Bush, a gunsmith in Vancouver, Washington. 鈥淲hatever you want to put on, including your coffee grinder.鈥�
Bush is a competitive shooter and said the AR-15 is great for that.
鈥淎ny platform you can shoot faster and accurate for competition gives you an edge,鈥� Bush said. But, he added, 鈥渉unting-wise an AR is not that great.鈥�
He thinks people love their ARs for other reasons. It鈥檚 an image.
鈥淚t鈥檚 got that little 鈥榯acticool鈥� look to it and you can go out and see the range ninjas playing around and everything,鈥� he said.
Jon Bush, a gunsmith in Vancouver, Washington, holds his AR-15 in his shop. Bush says the AR-15鈥檚 popularity has largely to do with the rifle鈥檚 appearance.
Jonathan Levinson / OPB
And Bush said this obsession with how the gun looks is most obvious when comparing the AR-15 to another gun: . That鈥檚 also a semi-automatic rifle, but it has a wood frame. It looks more like your grandpa鈥檚 hunting rifle than something SEAL Team 6 might carry.
鈥淭hey operate the exact same way,鈥� Bush said. 鈥淢ore often than not, they shoot the same round, too, with the same capacity. One is just scary looking.鈥�
Unlike the AR-15, however, the Mini-14 is neither adored, nor vilified. Most people have never heard of it.
Selling An Emotional Response
Guns are not just tools in modern America. There is a lot of emotion wrapped up in people鈥檚 decisions around firearms, according to Kiersten Muenchinger, a product design professor at the University of Oregon who studies how Americans give meaning to guns far beyond their functional purpose.
鈥淚t鈥檚 such a jumble with how we feel about having firearms, having lots of firearms, being able to have any kind of firearm, having a collection of firearms,鈥� she said.
In trying to understand the focus on the AR-15, Muenchinger said we can take a cue from product design.
鈥淎n aspect of what you鈥檙e looking for in your newly designed product is craveability and (that) it triggers some emotional response,鈥� she said.
Today, the emotional response that typically sells guns is about war.
Take, for instance, FN Herstal, a Belgian company that makes civilian and military firearms, including the M2 Browning .50 caliber machine gun and the M249 light machine gun.
In a , a video plays of bearded soldiers in Humvee turrets and patrolling through fog, shooting machine guns at an out of frame enemy. Over the video, a baritone narrator with a grizzled voice reads, 鈥淲e are warriors, shouldered by the bravest of the brave, we are tortured tested on the battlefields, cherished in foxholes, and proven worthy in the trenches.鈥�
Jon Bush holds a Spike鈥檚 Tactical AR-15 with 鈥渨ar鈥� and 鈥減eace鈥� in place of 鈥渟afe鈥� and 鈥渇ire鈥� on the rifle鈥檚 safety selector switch.
Jonathan Levinson / OPB
Tom Diaz, a staff attorney in the 1990s for the House Subcommittee on Crime and Criminal Justice who helped pass the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, said FN isn鈥檛 alone.
鈥淚f you look at industry ads,鈥� Diaz said, 鈥渋n many of the magazines and particularly in their catalogs, you will see that they play directly to this image of the armed person in the military.鈥�
And that is potentially dangerous. Frequent imagery glorifying military violence can make it seem normal and possibly a little easier to commit for someone already predisposed to violence.
鈥淭here is a subset of people,鈥� Diaz said, 鈥渇or whom I do think the bar has been lowered, partly through industry advertising, partly through incautious language by some of our leaders and partly through just plain provocative language from people at extremes.鈥�
Violent imagery has also taken over the discussions around gun control 鈥� to the annoyance of some gun owners and the frustration of people trying to change laws.
鈥淢ost of the politicians who deal with this issue, they don鈥檛 really have a clue about guns,鈥� Diaz lamented.
Can You Ban An Image?
(Now former) Democratic presidential candidate Beto O鈥橰ourke has drawn attention lately for saying an O鈥橰ourke administration would push to ban certain rifles, after a mass shooting in his hometown of El Paso, Texas left 23 people dead. On CNN recently, he was asked to elaborate.
鈥淲hen it comes to AR-15s and AK47s 鈥� that belongs on the battlefield; it does not belong in this country,鈥� O鈥橰ourke told host Chris Cuomo. 鈥淏ut when it comes to firearms used for hunting or self-defense the answer is, 鈥楴o.鈥欌��
O鈥橰ourke did not explain what differentiates a hunting rifle from an AR-15, but Congress has tried. In 1994, the same day it narrowly passed in the Senate, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Assault Weapons Ban, which expired in 2004.
The legislation banned a handful of specific and certain features, but it did little to address the underlying lethal aspects of the weapons.
The law did not ban all semi-automatic firearms, but it banned most AR- and AK-type rifles. If your rifle had a pistol grip, you were probably in the clear. Same if it had a bayonet mount. But if your rifle had both, then you might have an issue.
Diaz, the U.S. House attorney, worked on the bill but thinks it took the wrong approach.
鈥淭he 1994 definition was ludicrous,鈥� Diaz said. 鈥淭hings like a bayonet mount 鈥� I mean, what the hell does that have to do with firepower? Almost nothing.鈥�
Predictably, loopholes abounded and the 1994 ban didn鈥檛 really work to reduce gun violence. (A found it did decrease the frequency of mass shootings.)
Firearms companies just tweaked their designs to make them compliant while selling essentially the same guns, a problem California and Connecticut continue to have with their respective assault weapons bans.
Diaz said people need to stop obsessing over looks and just ban the one capability that makes guns so deadly: high-capacity magazines.
鈥淟et鈥檚 make it eight rounds, no grandfathering,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o all of these 10-, 20-, 30-, 40-, 60-, 90-, 100-round magazines become contraband after a grace period.鈥�
He says an AR-style rifle loaded with eight rounds is a whole different creature than an AR with 60.
Updated April 28, 2020, 12:30 p.m.:This story has been updated to include the El Paso shooting鈥搑elated death of Guillermo 鈥淢emo鈥� Garcia.
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