To everyone’s relief, ex-President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt during a rally at Butler, Pennsylvania, on 13 July 2024, although, sadly, a spectator at the same event was killed and two others were reported to be “critically injured.” An “AR-style” semi-automatic rifle was found near the body of 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, the sniper responsible for the deadly attack. The shooter had fired from a DPMS (Defence Procurement Manufacturing Services)-brand AR rifle, which belonged to his father and deployed .223 Remington cartridges, which are almost identical to 5. 56 x 45 mm standard NATO ammunition.
The AR-15 is America’s most popular, and consequently its best-selling, rifle, thereby justifying its designation by the National Rifle Association (NRA) as “America’s rifle.” It was developed in 1957 by Eugene Stoner, a self-taught small arms designer, who was at the time chief engineer at the ArmaLite division (of Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation)- an arms manufacturer in Hollywood, California, which was incorporated in 1954. Stoner, who had served as a Marine during the Second World War, was responding to a US Army request to produce a lightweight infantry rifle, made of aluminium and plastic, and capable of firing rounds of high-velocity, small-calibre cartridges that could penetrate a standard US steel combat helmet at 500 metres. The Cold War demanded an American competitor for the Soviet Union’s AK-47, first produced in 1947, recognising that high velocity projectiles inflict much more damage on human targets than the lower velocity cartridges in common use. The resulting AR (for ArmaLite Rifle)-15 was the fifteenth iteration of the firm’s prototype rifle. But sales were sluggish. Colt thus acquired the manufacturing and sub-licensing rights to the AR-15 in 1959, producing the lightweight, gas-operated, air-cooled, self-loading, magazine-fired rifle between 1959 and 1964. In its original form, the AR-15 was a selective-fire weapon, capable of firing .223 calibre Remington cartridges in the fully automatic mode. Colt introduced a semi-automatic version for civilian use which required the trigger to be pulled to fire each shot. The fully automatic selective-fire version, known as the M16 and equipped with a 20-round magazine, was meanwhile adopted for use by infantrymen in Vietnam in 1966, being used by the US military right up to 2022. The patents expired in the 1970s, and the AR-15 is now produced by a number of innovative gunmakers, who have modified the original product in many ways.
According to The Arms Guide, the AR-15 is “America’s most popular rifle for a reason. Not only is it a symbol of everything this country stands for, but is also an unsurpassed miracle of engineering.” In keeping with this description, it is user-friendly, reliable, versatile, stable, modular, and customisable to suit shooters’ “lawful needs”-with barrels, grips, magazines, scopes, and stocks to choose from. The AR-15 remains legal in all fifty states of America. Although considered an “assault weapon” by some, pro-gun lobbies and the gun industry consider that this appellation only applies to fully automatic weapons (machine guns) or those that can switch between semi-automatic and automatic-aided by bump stocks that use the weapon’s recoil to “bump” the trigger into the shooter’s finger.
An ineffective Federal Assault Weapons Ban- the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act 1994-was passed with bipartisan support to address concerns over semi-automatic weapons. The ban did not include weapons already in circulation and it expired under the terms of a 10-year sunset clause in 2004. Meanwhile, civilian ownership of the AR-15 sky-rocketed from around 400,000 in 1994 to more than 20 million by 2023, meaning that about one in 20 American adults now owns at least one. According to the Pew Research Center, as of June 2021, around a third of American adults owned a gun, and 40 per cent lived in a household with a gun. The US is indeed the only nation in the world where firearms outnumber people.
The ready availability and widespread ownership of the AR-15 means that the firearm, in its various forms, has been linked with at least ten of the seventeen deadliest mass shootings in the US since 2012, including Sandy Hook Elementary School (2012), Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida (2016), Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas (2017), and Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas (2022). It has become an instrument of death in America’s public spaces, including shopping malls, schools, movie theatres, churches, and music concerts.
Firearms serve many purposes in America, the most armed and militarised country in the world- some legal, others illegal, and some in the borderland between legality and criminality. Firearm possession is frequently driven by an overriding desire to protect oneself, one’s family/property/beliefs, including house/neighbourhood and extending to faith/political group/nation. Other reasons for use include recreational (including competitive) target shooting (marksmanship) at specially designated shooting ranges; hunting a variety of wild animals, small or large; settling scores; committing crime/domestic terrorism; engaging in gang warfare; letting off steam; ending one’s life; among many others. Unfortunately, at times guns end up in the hands of immature youngsters, mentally disturbed people, criminals, and terrorists of various shades, despite many proscriptions on their sale, which can be difficult to enforce and police.
The events of 13 July 2024 are yet another episode in the litany of firearm-related violence on American soil. America’s unconditional love for firearms, and its commitment to the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, makes even very limited gun control almost unenforceable, and any efforts must hence concentrate on damage limitation instead. It is just a matter of waiting for the next event, whenever, and wherever it happens.
Ashis Banerjee