The AR-15 IS a Weapon of War: Which is Why It is Perfect for You

by: Justin Hinckley, 2A Issues Coordinator

For some reason, the AR-15 finds itself a constant target of the anti-gun crowd. The AR-15 is now the single most popular model of privately owned firearm in the US, according to the National Sports Shooting Foundation (1). For those of us who want Americans to have the best tools available to defend themselves, their home, and their families, this is fantastic news. For those who want to ban the AR-15, this is awful news. After all, why do we want to have access to “weapons of war?” This may be a difficult question to answer if you are presented with it for the first time, as the framing of this question is meant to imply that if you support AR-15 ownership, you must be wanting to turn America’s streets into a war zone. Or maybe just to imply that mass AR-15 ownership will or, perhaps already has, turn those streets into a war zone. The AR-15 may be a weapon of war (irrelevant); it is also the best tool for your protection, particularly in your home.

Whether or not the AR-15 is a weapon of war is a largely pointless question with a mainly semantic answer. Anti-gunners largely answer the question with a resounding yes, pointing out that the military uses AR-15s everyday. Follow this answer up with a question seeking any additional depth and you will quickly find out that “weapon of war” is purely a propaganda term meant to demonize an inanimate object. That said, the term is factually correct, if we take it purely to mean a weapon currently used in warfare. Nevermind the refrain about how many handguns, bolt-action rifles, shotguns, or even knives are also weapons of war by that loose definition. AR-15 variations are used in war all around the globe and are the favored firearm of the most effective killing machine in the modern era: The US military.

The US military, despite being a corrupt back-scratching and palm-greasing cabal, does still factor in utility and effectiveness into decision-making. The AR-15 is used often in war because it combines many of the best features of other firearms into one package, while doing many of those things better than others. It is lightweight, accurate, fires an effective round out to intermediate distances, has a high ammo capacity, low recoil, good ergonomics, and great modularity. A new shooter can learn basic operations and hit targets out to 100 yards in about 1 day. A week of instruction can have the shooter performing intermediate skills and completing complex shooting drills in a matter of seconds.

Perhaps the most compelling question around the weapon of war discussion is; do these benefits confer any advantages to private citizens? After all, if we decide to define weapon of war as a weapon that is ONLY useful in war then it might just be a useful term. A Patriot missile could largely be considered a weapon only useful in a war. The same could be said for Javelin anti-tank missiles, anti-personnel mines, M1 Abrams tanks, and Apache attack helicopters. All of these weapons have relatively narrow uses outside of warfare, if they were to be used in their traditional military configuration and armament. In contrast, the military M-4s can generally be taken off the rack of the armory and handed to a US homeowner with no modifications and be a useful tool for home defense. In fact, the government of Ukraine was doing that with AR-15s and their Russian equivalent, the AK-47, at the beginning of the Russian invasion (2).

Let’s examine the specific features I listed above to determine how they offer advantages to US civilians. The feature I consider of utmost importance for the AR-15 as a defensive tool is the modularity of it. Not only can I decide between 30, 40, 60, or more rounds in my gun at one time, I can also easily change aiming optics, barrel lengths, grips, flashlights, and so many more. One of the difficulties in defining an AR-15 is also what makes it so popular; each one can be modified to suit the specific needs of each individual owner. Next we turn to the actual employment of the gun; ammunition capacity and ease of shooting. Ammunition capacity is great for the individual because most people don’t keep a stack of extra magazines with their defensive guns, meaning if you only have one magazine, you want as many rounds as possible. Ease of shooting breaks into recoil and ergonomics; the recoil is light enough that even non-gun people can tolerate it and gun people can put a full 30 round magazine on a single target in a matter of 3-5 seconds, depending on range. The ergonomics enable the shooter to operate the gun smoothly under pressure, such as operating the safety as part of your trigger pull (increasing safety overall), reloading the gun quickly due to the proximity of the bolt release to the hand as it inserts a new magazine, and finally the ability to do all basic gun operations without the firing hand ever leaving the gun, enabling quicker overall employment.

The propaganda term weapon of war is not generally used to stir up engaging discussion. That said, if one decides to really engage with someone using the term, you may be able to demonstrate to observers just how shallow a thought is usually attached to it. Sure, the AR-15 is a weapon used in war but it is not a tool whose only use is in war. The same things that make it useful to the infantryman on the battlefield also makes it useful to the private citizen wishing to defend himself against aggressors. So, the next time someone decides to ruin Thanksgiving with their weapon of war rhetoric, ask them to explain what makes the AR-15 a weapon of war, and why those features disqualify it from civilian use.

1. National Sports Shooting Foundation. “MSRs In Circulation.” https://www.nssf.org/articles/commonly-owned-nssf-announces-over-24-million-msrs-in-circulation/
2. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-ukraine-invasion-kyiv-civilians-volunteer-get-guns-help-defend-city/