In the last week, a lot of people have been asking “Why do you need an assault rifle?” or “Why does anyone need an AR15?” or more plainly saying “No one needs a semi auto rifle that is just designed to kill people.”
The firearm industry responds with “they’re not assault rifles, they’re modern sporting rifles!” I have previously stated that I don’t really care what they’re called but also that the whole “modern sporting rifle” thing is stupid.
Perhaps I’m biased on the whole sporting thing. I don’t hunt. I used to hunt when I was little. I would shoot birds and varmints with a .22, although I later killed bigger things. I prided myself on hitting what I shot at the first time and not causing unnecessary suffering.
On a hunting trip not too long after I left the military, though, I had an easy shot lined up at a distance (30 yards) that would have been a guaranteed hit with a rifle that would have guaranteed an instant and humane kill (.270 WSM). But sometime in between bringing the rifle up to my shoulder and putting almost enough pressure on the trigger to fire, I realized I couldn’t pull the trigger. I didn’t need to kill that animal and thus I didn’t want to kill it and thus I couldn’t kill it. So ended my hunting days – nearly ten years ago now. Since then I’ve gone out of my way to save as many animals as I can.
Maybe this is why I’m against the “modern sporting rifle” line, but even the NSSF’s own data shows that hunting is a very small part of why people buy ARs – in fact it’s the last reason they listed.
No, I own ARs because they’re the most effective weapon I can carry into a fight by myself. I don’t want to get into a fight, but I do want to get out of a fight. That means bringing a weapon that keeps bad guys away from me and lets me shoot back at as many bad guys as are choosing to shoot at me. As was constantly drilled into my head in Field Medical Service School, fire superiority is the best medicine on the battlefield.
The idea of “not needing anything more than” X, Y, or Z firearm is stupid. A gunfight is not a jousting match – there is no chivalry involved, no obligation to carry a lance of equal size and weight as my opponent. While I can certainly defend myself with a pistol or a shotgun, I cannot really project power with either of those. With a semi auto rifle, I have the ability to put bullets in very specific places at any distance – from the end of the muzzle to almost any yardage at which I could conceivably justify the use of lethal force.
Moreover, these bullets have less chance of doing damage to things I don’t want to shoot (such as innocent people) for a variety of reasons, most notably from the inherent precision afforded to the shooter by a rifle.
In a fight between a guy with a pistol and a guy with a rifle, the guy with the rifle has massive advantages. Just ask the off-duty police officer who engaged the Orlando terrorist with, I am told by a law enforcement officer in the Orlando area, over fifty rounds from his service pistol before retreating because he was out of ammo (The “only good guys with guns stop bad guys with guns” mantra only works for some of the garden variety mass shooters, mostly the ones who aren’t motivated by religious ideology, and is another cutesy saying we need to do away with quickly).
Put simply, the same things that make semi auto rifles desirable to terrorists make them desirable for use as defensive weapons. Take semi auto rifles away and bad guys will search for different and even more effective ways to kill. We can never assume that the doctrine of individual irrational actors will remain constant, nor should we believe that this all started after the (toothless) 1994 AWB went away in 2004. Take away the bad guys’ dynamite and they will use hunting rifles. When they meet in groups and we take away their rental trucks and fertilizer, they’ll use airliners.
I would rather people ask how the terrorist who murdered nine people in a church managed to pass a background check he clearly shouldn’t have than ask why we need semi auto rifles – a category of weapon that is involved in less than three percent of firearm homicides each year and isn’t the weapon of choice for even a plurality of mass shooters since 1982, despite the fact that the AR15 has been available to civilians for about fifty years.
I would rather people ask how we can prevent bad guys from isolating a group of innocent people from protection long enough to cause them great harm. That’s the real problem here – terrorists are like radiation in that the duration and proximity of your exposure to each determines your chances of survival.
Of course I don’t think that owning a scary semi auto rifle is the only reason why I wasn’t murdered today. I’m under no illusion of having to use an AR (or any other firearm) to defend myself at any point in the future. Were I to think that I was actually going to need an AR at any specific time or place, I would most likely make immediate lifestyle changes, such as moving to a remote island or maybe buying a Hind.
Then again, I don’t think I’ll need two first aid kits with everything from motrin to tweezers to a dozen tourniquets tomorrow, but they’re still going to be in the trunk of my car.
Define “sport”.
Football isn’t about hunting, but it’s a sport.
Two-gun matches aren’t about hunting, I’d say it’s a sport.
I think some of the MSR push was an attempt to get under the “sporting purposes” umbrella.
The analogous mention of your (some non-Corpsmen might say) excessive medical supplies is perfect for this. Name any other situation where you want anyone to potentially make a lifesaving intervention with the bare minimum, or less, on hand. Firefighters don’t show up with just an extinguisher, EMTs don’t show up with just a box of Band-Aids, and Police may only have a sidearm and shotgun, but they will show up in twos and tens with full kit as soon as they know to do so. It is unconscionable to ask a person to respond to personal danger with only the bare minimum when A) they may not be able to fully assess that danger and B) a more precise and effective tool is available.
I don’t own a firearm. Not a one. But to ask people to avail themselves willingly to any potential threat or show of force is farcical.
I too gave up hunting years ago for many of the same reasons as yourself. As for the AR debate, I enjoy the mechanical aspect of all guns, and I enjoy putting these rifles together in many different configurations. Why do we need a good reason for owning something? Does everything have to have solid justification before we are allowed to own it? I enjoy collecting and working on my guns as much as I enjoy shooting them, but the anti’s would never understand that aspect of gun ownership.
I own ARs because none of your business.
Great thought pal I agree!
Sorry, I did’t mean to sound blunt or obtuse. Great blog, Andrew.
What does need have to do with anything.
I have AR15s so that weak minded people have something to be afraid of.
And that is exactly the same thought the mass shooters have. Hence why this issue is on debate.
Why do we need a reason to own an Ar15? Why do so many people want to put restrictions on the 2nd Amendment. Do we put any restrictions on any other Amendment? You can say this but not this over here. You can go to that church but the one over there. The only restrictions on the Amendments is to the Government. Search and seizure laws etc. Inknow what you will say there are some exceptions to what you can say and where, think about it there we dont restrict any other Amendment like they want to on the 2nd. It does not state you can have onky these type of firearms. There should be no law or any reason given to own any type of firearm you want.
Well said. I will share this with my friends who wonder why.
The problem is not the type of gun, it’s the type of person holding the gun. We need to prevent bad people from getting guns. We need to start by closing the private sale loophole and require background checks for all gun sales. Nothing will be 100% effective, but it’s just way too easy for a criminal to buy a gun today through a private sale.
We need pass more laws! Because criminals and crazies follow laws. If they can’t buy guns, they will steal them. If they can’t steal them, they will make them. Some dude made an AK out of a shovel just because he could. There are plenty of skilled people who would do similar things for less wholesome reasons, if the price was right.
I like the part about “….not a jousting match….” If reminds me of the saying, “If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.”
If you talk about an AR 15 then why does the picture show you holding an AK 47?
So that people like you would comment without reading the caption.
I have the same question as Ron, the caption you refer to say ” why own an AR15″ and the picture is of someone holding an AK 47. Why wouldn’t you be curious about it. It doesn’t make sense. Are you thinking people won’t know the difference?
It’s not an AK47.
lmao! I was gonna say it if no one else did…but I should have known it wouldn’t take long. Well done Andrew!
It’s actually an AK-74 variant.
I’m imagining you knew you were going to use that picture this way when you took it, and the hint of a smirk on your face is killing me.
Disappointed I had to read this far to find a comment about the “AK-47” in the picture that is actually an East German MPi-74. So many errors… would be more closely related to the AK-74 (not 47), German not Russian, nevermind that you flat out told them why you put the picture there and what type of weapon it was. But the “clip” is curved it must be an AK-47.
Love it! Great article!
I don’t “need” an AR15.
I have never needed an AR15.
I pray I never need an AR15.
In all probability I will never need an AR15.
However should I ever need a rifle, I had better have an AR15.
Therefore I do have an AR15.
And when our government says that we cannot have AR15’s, that is when we will most need our AR15’s.
There is still a strong residue of fuddstink out there and some dumbasses in the shooting community still try to pander to those sniveling Fudd morons, even after everyone else has basically told them to STFU or get lost.