Gimme a goddamn break already. What part of “well regulated” don’t these gun fetishists not get? The above picture from the NRA’s own publication makes it clear as day they know the AR-15 is for military purposes. Here’s a link to the original article.
This is not ambiguous, or even in question.
News and publicity releases on a .22 center-fire rifle offered for military purposes, the Armalite AR-15, have raised the question as to whether it should replace the present standard M14 rifle of 7.62 mm NATO caliber.
The article goes on to note how light the new rifle is. Something we have become all too familiar with. One of the selling points? MANY MORE ROUNDS OF AMMUNITION CAN BE CARRIED with this weapon of war. Those aren’t my words. That’s the NRA talking.
The primary advantage possible with a small bore is lightness of rifle and ammunition, and this is important. A small bore rifle with a given number of rounds of ammunition can weigh materially less than in cal. .30 or 7.62 mm NATO, or for the same weight many more rounds of ammunition can be carried.
But that’s not all. The added advantage of this new killing machine? Less recoil. BETTER SHOOTING AND MORE HITS UNDER COMBAT CONDITIONS. Those aren’t my words. That’s the NRA talking. You gotta admit, given the carnage this weapon of war has inflicted on civilians, we know that is an accurate assessment.
Another advantage of the small bore rifle is reduced recoil (though this is less important than formerly, since present gas-operated breech mechanisms make the perceptible recoil much softer than from a hand-operated rifle). Light recoil facilitates training by lessening the shooter's fear of recoil. It has been hoped, and sometimes stated, that this will be reflected in better shooting and more hits under combat conditions.
The AR-15, although it is “only” a .22 calibre small bore rifle, actually offers significantly more punch than a .22 calibre pistol. In an AR-15, the bullets leave the barrel at 3625 feet per second. At that velocity, you can cover a mile in less than 2 seconds.
The cartridge used in this rifle is the .224 Winchester E2. It fires a 53-gr. flat-base bullet at a stated muzzle velocity of 3300 f.p.s. It differs slightly from the Armalite AR-15 rifle cartridge, which was called at first the .222 Remington Special and now the .223 Remington. The .223 fires a 55-gr. boattail bullet at a stated muzzle velocity of 3265 f .p.s.
That’s fast. But wait there’s more! Let’s talk about how many of these bullets you can fire.
The unrestricted high cyclic rate of about 750 shots per minute brings the recoil impulses in such fast succession that, despite the straight stock, it was found comparatively difficult to hold the rifle down on aim in full-automatic fire. Facility in full-automatic fire can come only with practice.
Basically, you have a weapon capable of shooting more than 10 bullets per second at a muzzle velocity that covers a mile in less than 2 seconds. At that rate, a standard 20 round box magazine would be emptied about the time the first bullet hit its target. Yeah, real hunting material. Of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so how did the American armed forces respond to this new weapon of war?
The U.S. Air Force recommended after its 1960 test that the AR-15 rifle be adopted as the standard shoulder weapon in the Air Force.
By far the largest possible user of the rifle is the U.S. Army. The Army initiated and supported the experiments leading to the AR-15 rifle and its cartridge, and on their completion tested them very extensively. The AR-15 thus has received much consideration.
At the time this article was written the decision to adopt this as standard issue by the Army was still being evaluated. As the article noted in conclusion:
The United States small arms industry is cooperating fully in this effort.
So all the goddamned gun fetishists who want to cry about “muh rights” and cling to their toys can go pound sand as far as I’m concerned. This is a weapon of war. The manufacturer’s know it. The military knows it. The NRA knows it. Everyone knows it. Pretending otherwise is Mything The Point.