The AR-15 rifle is enemy number one on the left. It's the firearm they want to be banned again. To those ignorant about guns, the rifle looks scary, which has become the liberals' hallmark telltale sign when they drop their predictable lectures about so-called "assault weapons." The firing mechanism is no different than any other self-reloading handgun. It's semi-automatic; another term the anti-gun left equates falsely to fully automatic. When the Biden White House and other gun control groups talk about banning semi-automatics, they are ignorant of what's available for civilian use. Semi-automatic firearms have been readily available for decades. It's also showing their real policy goal, which isn't anything we haven't known for a generation: the destruction of the Second Amendment. So, given that liberals want to ban this firearm, how many Americans own one?
It speaks to the legalese of the Second Amendment fight, especially regarding the debate about "common use." The left would like to paint a narrative that only lunatics and mass killers own the AR-15—that it's a rarely-owned rifle. And yes, it can be used for hunting some game, but not all since it's not a high-caliber weapon; it shoots a .223/5.56 round. Some states ban the round for hunting since it doesn't kill animals quickly enough.
Though it's probably intentional, there is some odd disconnect between the AR-15 and the left. We see one of the most versatile modern sporting rifles on the market; they see that ridiculous rifle used in "Robocop." Hunting rifles, like those that shoot 30.06 or .308 Winchester, are high-powered rifles, and the left thinks they are similar to the AR-15. There's nuance here: the AR-15 can be used for hunting, though not for all animals; it's not high-powered but does enough to defend oneself from home invaders. The recoil is also non-existent and light, making it a favorite for female gun owners, the next frontier in shooting sports and firearm ownership. Women's participation in gun ownership and obtaining concealed carry permits has spiked, a trend going on for nearly ten years. And there's no sign of it dipping.
So, how many Americans own this multi-purpose sporting rifle? That figure is in the millions, with the ever-present 30-round magazine soaring into the tens of millions. It's why a ban on this gun and the prohibition of so-called "high-capacity magazines" are unworkable. Simply put, too many Americans own these firearms for it to be a constitutional policy move, though it never was a legal move anyway (via The Reload):
Tens of millions of Americans own an AR-15.
That’s according to a new Washington Post-Ipsos poll released on Monday. The poll surveyed Americans more broadly to gauge gun ownership and found that 31 percent of adults report owning guns. Of those, the poll found that 20 percent own an AR-15 rifle.
“Taken together, the polls find that 6 percent of Americans own an AR-15, about 1 in 20,” Post reporter Emily Guskin wrote. “The data suggests that with a U.S. population of 260.8 million adults, about 16 million Americans own an AR-15.”
The survey is the latest evidence to confirm the popularity of AR-15s and similar rifles, often dubbed “assault weapons” by critics, among the American gun-owning public. The extent of their ownership could factor heavily in the political debate over their continued legality as multiple blue states mull bans and gun rights groups prepare to contest them.
That finding provides new insight into ownership of the popular rifle, which is valued by gun-rights advocates for its versatility and modularity but reviled by gun-control activists for its use by shooters in a number of high-profile attacks.
The poll’s estimates land in the ballpark of previous estimates. The National Shooting Sports Foundation has previously estimated that there are over 24.4 million AR-15s and similar rifles—which it calls “modern sporting rifles”—in civilian hands as of 2022. The National Firearms Survey, conducted in 2021 by Georgetown professor William English, found that 30.2% of gun owners, about 24.6 million people, indicated owning an AR-15 or similarly styled rifle.
In its landmark Heller decision, the Supreme Court found that the Second Amendment protects arms “in common use” by “law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes.” Whether ownership among tens of millions of Americans is enough to fall into that camp may help determine the constitutionality of AR-15 bans. Although, a federal judge in Delaware ruled on Monday that state’s ban can stand despite the popularity of the rifle.
We'll have to duke this out in court as we did on concealed carry permits. The landmark New York State Rifle & Pistol Co. v. Bruen decision in July 2022 finally affirmed that the justifiable need clause for carry permits in anti-gun states was unconstitutional and that the Second Amendment protects one's right to own firearms for self-defense outside the home. Getting those two points before the Supreme Court for oral arguments took years. It looks like state-based bans on "assault weapons" are next.
