Before we start, let’s just get one thing straight: A renewal of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban will not crumble under fire from the “lobbying” power of the NRA.
For sure, the National Rifle Association has a lot of political power—which is, of course, derived from its 4.5 million members and not from the gun industry, as the anti-gun movement would have you believe.
No. Any call to ban AR-15 rifles (what the left likes to incorrectly call “assault weapons”) will likely fall flat on Capitol Hill simply because that firearm is by any objective measure the most popular long gun in the United States today, and has been since the original Assault Weapons Ban lapsed in 2004.
According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (which represents the firearms industry), since the end of the original Assault Weapons Ban over 8 million AR-style rifles have been sold nationwide. The shooting public’s appetite for what the industry now calls the “modern sporting rifle” stems generally from two things.
First, the AR-15 was designed as an “everyman” rifle. It is easy to operate and can fit a variety of shooters’ body types. It has a comfortable pistol grip, an easy trigger, a big safety lever and a stock that adjusts for shooters both tall and short. It fires an “intermediate” cartridge that has good accuracy at moderate ranges but doesn’t kick like a mule. And it comes with a wide array of accessories that allow owners to customize the rifle to match their shooting style.
Just as modern semi-auto handguns like the Glock have eclipsed revolvers for America’s handgun owners, so too has the modern sporting rifle overtaken bolt-action rifles and shotguns as the long arm of choice for defending the home and shooting for sport.
But more than its engineering practicality, the AR-15 has truly become “America’s Gun” due in no small part to U.S. military involvement in the war on terrorism.
Over 10 years of news and media imagery of American troops fighting for freedom overseas using the M4 carbine (military variant of the AR-15) has propelled the Vietnam-era rifle into iconic status. Much as the 1911 handgun did through World War II, the M4 and the civilian AR-15 has become the true symbol of American might and defense. It’s become for many the symbol of freedom and independence, with some AR-15 makers calling it the “Modern Musket.” Oppressors use Soviet-designed AK-47s, liberators use American-designed M-16s and M4s. So why wouldn’t average Americans want the civilian version of the rifle used by our troops and first responders?
And the evidence goes beyond sales figures and popular culture. In December 2015—just weeks after the terror attacks in San Bernardino, California—a New York Times poll found 50 percent of Americans do not want a renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban. What’s remarkable about that survey is that it’s the first time in over 20 years that a solid majority of Americans say they want to keep the right to own an AR-15—that, despite a relentless media assault that discourages gun ownership in general, and AR-15 ownership specifically.
And that affection for the AR-15 shows at the state level as well. So far only six states restrict the sale of AR-15 style rifles, including Northeast states like New York and Connecticut and, of course, California. Not much of a national legislative constituency.
Further, courts are now wrangling over whether banning the AR-15 is even constitutional. Some appeals courts have affirmed state bans, while others have questioned whether barring AR ownership infringes on the Second Amendment as interpreted by the Supreme Court’s Heller decision. A federal ban would fly in the face of the Heller majority which said the government could not ban citizens from owning firearms commonly used for self-defense—a problem the 1994 ban didn’t have to contend with.
But in the end, all the court cases and political wrangling might be academic. The AR-15 isn’t some esoteric firearm that’s somehow way outside the norm and can therefore be easily dismissed as a scary “weapon of war,” banned with barely a whimper from the public. While that might have been possible in 1994, millions of gun owners today revere the AR-15 as a symbol of American exceptionalism and have come to rely on it as the go-to rifle for recreation in the field and defense of the home.
Christian Lowe is a senior editor with Grand View Media Group and is editor in chief of Shooting Sports Retailer magazine.
