Gun-Makers Have Sold AR-15s to Civilians For More Than 50 Years
These ‘military-style’ firearms have a long history in private hands
https://warisboring.com/gun-makers-have-sold-ar-15s-to-civilians-for-more-than-50-years-9e9f30775e#.hp3rjvo1eby JOSEPH TREVITHICK
On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded as many more at a gay club in Orlando — the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
The massacre reignited a now long-standing debate over whether civilians have any business owning “military-style” guns such as Mateen’s SIG Sauer MCX rifle.
“What if I’m asked why, a day after this massacre, I want to buy the very type of gun used to slaughter people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando?” Helen Ubiñas, a columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote on June 14. “I’m a gun-enthusiast with a soft spot for military-style rifles?”
“Turns out I don’t need a story. The AR-15 is on display in the window of the gun shop,” she added.
“I traveled to Philadelphia to better understand the firepower of military-style assault weapons and, hopefully, explain their appeal to gun lovers,” Gersh Kuntzman of The New York Daily News explained in a June 14 column. “Frank Stelmach of Double Tap Shooting Range and Gun Shop … has difficulty explaining why law-abiding citizens need a gun that can empty a 40-round clip in less than five seconds.”
Still, Ubiñas, Kuntzman — along with many others on both sides of the argument — left out an important point. Gun-makers have sold variants and derivatives of the AR-15 rifle — such as the MCX — to civilians for more than 50 years.
In this particular case, terminology is important. “AR-15” is a trade name, but one such as “Kleenex” or “Xerox.” It has entered the common lexicon to describe a broad category of weapons based around the same pattern.
Originally meaning “Armalite Rifle 15,” after the original manufacturer, the letters have come to simply represent “automatic rifle” in many people’s minds. With Armalite’s patents long-expired, any company can make AR-15 clones — and they do.
Regardless, both the news media and gun owners commonly refer to hundreds of different variants based on the initial Armalite design simply as “AR-15s,” regardless of a design’s origins or particulars.
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Swiss-owned SIG Sauer’s American subsidiary produces the MCX. It shares with other AR-15 derivatives a common lower frame, the part federal law treats as the central element of this broad group of firearms. If you own an AR-15 lower receiver, you own a gun, as far as authorities in Washington are concerned.
With a company-supplied conversion kit, anyone can convert existing AR-15 rifles into MCXs in the privacy of their own home — without needing to be a trained gunsmith, a licensed gun-dealer or a federally-approved manufacturer.
At top and above — a civilian handles an AR-15-type rifle during a U.S. Marine Corps recruiting event. U.S. Marine Corps photos
Though ubiquitous today, the Armalite’s lightweight rifle could easily have failed. In 1957, the company had rushed a prototype of an earlier, larger gun to the U.S. Army, in hope of securing a major contract.
During a torture-test at Springfield Armory, the barrel on this experimental AR-10 broke open. Already lobbying hard for their own design, the M-14, the Army’s weaponeers cited the AR-10 incident to help quickly dismiss the rival gun as a viable alternative.
The California gun-manufacturer, then still a division of the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation, went back to the drawing board. Legendary gun-designer Eugene Stoner and his team scaled-down the rifle.
The new AR-15 was a marvel of then-state-of-the-art manufacturing processes and materials. Armalite made the AR-10s and -15s from lightweight aluminum and fiberglass, a break from the wood-and-steel guns of the recent past.
The AR-15 weighs less than eight pounds with a fully loaded 30 round magazine. By comparison, through World War II and Korea, American soldiers lugged the nine-and-a-half-pound M-1 rifle, which held only eight rounds.
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