5 reasons you NEED an AR-15

The AR-15 has the dubious distinction of being America's most popular semi-automatic rifle. I'm more familiar with the gun than most people: I own one. And one thing I know for sure is that this weapon doesn't belong in the hands of the average civilian.

I've owned multiple firearms for most of my life. I spent two decades in the Washington Metropolitan Police Department in a number of different roles, as a street cop walking the beat and on various special mission units.
I'm also a card-carrying member of the National Rifle Association. And when I wasn't at my job doing police work, I worked part-time for several years in firearm sales as well as training law enforcement officers, members of the military and civilians.
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I purchased my AR-15 because I was assigned one as part of my police duties. But officers weren't allowed to take our department-issued weapons home. I felt it was my responsibility to become proficient with any weapon I'd been assigned, so I bought one. And I've spent hundreds of hours training so that I could properly use it.

I've sold guns at big box retailers and I've also sold firearms at a small retail gun store. Some gun buyers have been misled into thinking that the AR-15 is somehow practical for self-defense. But frankly, it's the last gun that I would recommend for that purpose. Usually, the motivation for purchasing the AR-15 is simple: People want one because they want one. Most times, the person who buys an AR-15 comes into the store already knowing that they intend to purchase one. I've pressed some customers about why they want an AR-15, but no one could ever come up with a legitimate justification for needing that particular weapon.

Some members of the tinfoil hat brigade have come up with the reply, "We need these weapons because we want to be effective against the government if it becomes tyrannical. That's part of our Second Amendment right." Personally, I think that's ludicrous, but it has become an increasingly popular justification for purchasing a semi-automatic rifle.

The bullet that comes out of the barrel of an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle can easily penetrate the target -- the intruder or whatever person you are using deadly force to defend yourself or others from. But it also will go through the wall behind that person, and potentially through that room and into the next wall. That power and accuracy are useful for military purposes, which is obviously what they were designed for. But it's far more power than should ever be in the hands of the average civilian. The bullet fired by the AR-15 is capable of defeating the average police officer's body armor, like a knife slicing through butter. SWAT teams and some of the more specialized units typically are equipped with level IV Kevlar or steel-plated armor, which would stop maybe two or three direct hits, but eventually body armor breaks down after being hit with multiple rounds.

A person wielding an AR-15 has a range beyond 300 yards. For an officer armed with a 9 mm pistol, hitting a target beyond 50 yards is going to be difficult, even for the most accomplished marksman. A bullet fired by an AR-15 travels at three times the velocity as one fired by a 9 mm handgun. And magazines that can feed dozens of rounds into the weapon in the space of minutes clearly were meant for use only on the battlefield. The prevalence of these weapons means police sometimes are overmatched, as we saw with the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last month. In a situation where you have small children near the shooter, you want to remove the threat as quickly as possible. But we all saw the tragic consequences at that elementary school, where police waited for more than an hour before engaging with the teenage gunman armed with an AR-15 who killed 19 young children and two teachers.
I have no doubt that police in Uvalde wish they had had weapons as powerful as the one carried by the shooter who snuffed out the lives of the victims in that school. But a far better outcome would have been if the shooter didn't have an AR-15 in the first place.

...but all of that was addressed in the video.

A letter to the local paper has found the solution for school shootings, it is not guns it is the homeless wandering the streets. He has seen a middle-aged woman with a baby doll wandering the streets and he is sure that is the type of person doing the school shootings. He has also as seen lost old men wandering the streets. He is sure if these people are just locked up in a mental institution it would put an end to school shootings. He is a big believer in the NRA lie machine.

To start with the middle-aged woman with the baby doll does not have an AR-15 hidden in her shopping cart and does not have the money to buy lunch let alone an AR-15. The old men wandering around lost would not be able to find a school let alone an AR-15. This is not the profile of a school shooter. They have homes and are often a school student. They have access to money to buy an AR-15 or access to one in their home. The NRA definition of mentally ill is someone who does something they would not do. There is no psychiatrist on staff at the NRA only idiots offering opinions they are not qualified to make.

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The key thing in the profile of a mass murderer, is not mental illness, the key to spotting a mass murderer is that he owns an AR-15 style assault weapon or has access to one. That is the only thing they have in common. Mass murderers are true gun nuts, they worship assault weapons and often post pictures on social media of them holding or shooting assault weapons. They are fascinated by killing people. Assault weapons make mass murder child’s play.

The best way to find mass murderers before they slaughter 20 first graders is to look for people who are fascinated with guns. You are wasting your time looking at bag ladies on the street with baby dolls.