When the public asks, “How did we get here?” after each mass shooting, the answer goes beyond National Rifle Association lobbyists and Second Amendment zealots. It lies in large measure with the strategies of firearms executives like Dyke. Long before his competitors, the mercurial showman saw the profits in a product that tapped into Americans’ primal fears, and he pulled the mundane levers of American business and politics to get what he wanted.
Dyke brought the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, which had been considered taboo to market to civilians, into general circulation, and helped keep it there. A folksy turnaround artist who spun all manner of companies into gold, he bought a failing gun maker for $241,000 and built it over more than a quarter-century into a $76 million business producing 9,000 guns a month. Bushmaster, which operated out of a facility just 30 miles from the Lewiston massacre, was the nation’s leading seller of AR-15s for nearly a decade. It also made Dyke rich. He owned at least four homes, a $315,000 Rolls Royce and a helicopter, in which he enjoyed landing on the lawn of his alma mater, Husson University.
The AR-15 was designed as a main battle rifle for light infantry. The rounds are designed to do a fair bit of extra damage. Other than that, it’s only good for small game or target shooting. .22lr is just as capable for civilian use, rounds are cheaper, lighter and are used in more firearms.
Yes it has had a long life as the main battle rifle of the US, abd Canada uses a variant (I was trained on it when I was in the Navy) but it having the following that it does kinda confuses me.
By definition, MBRs use full size cartridges (eg .30-06, .308) whereas assault rifles use intermediate cartridges. The difference between say, M1 Garand/M14/AR10 and the AR-15.
‘Assualt rifle’ isn’t a classification outside of the news media.
It most certainly is. It is the distinction between weapons that use full size cartridges (FAL/ M1/M14/AR10) and those that use intermediate cartridges (StG43-44/AR-15/AK47-74+), long before news media even knew what they were. In fact, “battle rifle” was created to distinguish between the older full size cartridge weapons and the newer intermediate cartridge weapons. But don’t take my word for it, just listen to Eugene Stoner. He knew better than either of us.
Really? Because no weapons instructor I’ve ever had used the term, no other military personnel that I talked to (including infantry and from other countries) ever used the term other than to mock it.
Cool anecdote bro.
And a ‘full sized cartridge’ is some bullshit as well. So, yeah cool factiods for whatever war game you play.
Are you really arguing the existence and use of terminology like full size (or power) and intermediate cartridge? Do you have a problem with “Magnum” as well?
You do realise a .22lr is a ‘full size cartridge’ for a rifle that is chambered in .22lr right?
You keep saying things about calibres saying cartridge.
It’s by definition not a battle rifle. It’s a rifle taken into battle sure but it’s an assault rifle with roots in the sturmgewehr 44 literally “assault rifle 44”.