The AR-15 has Ruined, RUINED I Tell You, America
Vai the Atlantic: The Rifle That Ruined America
Written by Ryan Busse who is a senior policy adviser to the gun-control advocacy group Giffards.
Amazingly enough that’s what they tell you about the author. They correctly describe Giffards.
According to Ryan, 20 years ago nobody bought AR-15 style weapons. (I should check mine, I’m sure it was made after 1986 and prior to 1999) And only a few companies were making AR-15 platforms. (Maybe because the government was standing on the scales of economics)
And he was out there working hard to keep evil AR-15s out of the gun culture.
Up until about 2006, only a handful of companies were making AR-15s. They were outliers, producing rifles mainly for law enforcement and the military, and in the domestic commercial market AR-15s accounted for just a fraction of total gun sales, which averaged from 6 million to 8 million guns a year. The social norms that governed gun ownership and the firearms industry were clear: Assault rifles and tactical gear were a creepy, fringe interest that had no place in a complex democratic society.
Got that, tactical gear was creepy. If you had to dress like a FUDD to be able to fit in with gun culture.
And even though the intent was to ban all AR-15s, it never really happened, so you can ignore the AWB of 1994. Which implies you can ignore the fact that there was no change in crime statistics that can be directly tied to the 1994 AWB.
Ryan is proud that he fought to keep tactical equipment out of the marketplace, because tactical equipment is dangerous.
I was looking at a Winchester ’94 with saddle ring. That saddle ring was “tactical” for its time. The sling points on my hundred year old (plus) rifles were tactical. The reproduction ammo pouches were tactical. But for Ryan having a vest that holds spare magazines and an IFAK is just to dangerous.
The thing to note is that this article is well written. Articulate. It sounds calm and reasoned. But it includes biased statements that make it easy to make assumptions. “NRA leadership held closed-door business meetings” The implication is that they were secret meetings. The NRA convention wasn’t canceled after Columbine. Never mind that the convention is also the annual meeting that is required. The NRA decided to be aggressive instead of conciliatory in their messaging and stance.
Remember, when some criminal does criminal things over there, you should surrender over here.
And then we get to the kicker, Firearm manufacturers use irresponsible marketing.