Sources: The Associated Press, USA Today, Northeastern University Mass Killing Database The modern AR-15 dominates the walls and websites of gun dealers. adults - or roughly 16 million people - own at least one AR-15, according to polling data from The Washington Post and Ipsos.Īlmost every major gunmaker now produces its own version of the weapon.

Today, the AR-15 is the best-selling rifle in the United States, industry figures indicate. “We’d have NRA members walk by our booth and give us the finger,” said Randy Luth, the founder of gunmaker DPMS, one of the earliest companies to market AR-15s. Most gun owners also shunned the AR-15, dismissing it as a “black rifle” that broke from the typical wood-stocked long guns that were popular at the time. The National Rifle Association and other industry allies were focused on promoting traditional rifles and handguns. The industry’s biggest trade shows banished the AR-15 to the back. Gun executives doubted many buyers would want to spend their money on one. It seemed like overkill for home defense. troops in the Vietnam War, where the weapon earned a new name: the M16.īut few gunmakers saw a semiautomatic version of the rifle - with its shrouded barrel, pistol grip and jutting ammunition magazine - as a product for ordinary people. “An outstanding weapon with phenomenal lethality,” an internal Pentagon report raved. The rugged, powerful weapon was originally designed as a soldiers’ rifle in the late 1950s. The AR-15 wasn’t supposed to be a bestseller.

For this reason, we refer to the rifle broadly as the AR-15 in this series.

While Colt still holds the trademark, “AR-15” has become a ubiquitous term for a popular style of gas-operated, magazine-fed semiautomatic rifles. The patent expired, leaving many companies to produce their own weapons, commonly called AR-style rifles. Colt acquired the AR-15 patent and trademark from Armalite in 1959.

Scared to Live by Stephen Booth