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The AR-15: 'America's rifle' or killer weapon?
Pittsburgh Tribune Review ^ | 2/27/2018 | BEN SCHMITT

Posted on 02/27/2018 8:09:30 AM PST by Old Teufel Hunden

Anthony Ogline calls it America's rifle: the AR-15.

“It's the most popular sporting arm that's ever been produced,” said Ogline, president of Verona Gun Safe, which sells an array of firearms. “A massive amount of these are out there and there's a reason for its popularity.”

He's far from alone in declaring his love for the gun. Americans own 10 million AR-15 rifles, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

Gun enthusiasts like that it's customizable with lots of accessories, easy to build, lightweight and easy to handle. Most gun manufacturers produce some version of an AR-15.

“Honestly they are adult Legos,” Ogline said. “They're so easy to customize and put together yourself, that's definitely part of the appeal.”

They're easily modified with sights, grips, suppressors and other accessories.

But a culture clash over the style of the rifle stems from its use in deadly attacks over the past five years, including mass shootings at a high school in Parkland, Fla.; a concert in Las Vegas; the Pulse nightclub in Orlando; and Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

One gun devotee in New York destroyed his AR-15 in a viral online video days after the Florida attack and asked, “Is the right to own this weapon more important than someone's life?”

(Excerpt) Read more at triblive.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: ar15; banglist; guns; rifle; semiautomatic; whynotboth
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I would say articles like this are what's missing in the national debate. I think that the writer meticulously presented both sides of the argument and did not put his own bias in here. I can't tell the writers own opinion from reading the story. However, this type of reporting only goes on at the local level, no longer at the national level.
1 posted on 02/27/2018 8:09:30 AM PST by Old Teufel Hunden
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To: Old Teufel Hunden
Question posed incorrectly: “Is the right to own this weapon more important than someone's life?”

The Second Amendment is about individuals being able to protect themselves ... from other individuals, groups, and or tyrannical government. As such that God given right transcends ... the issue is not the right to self protection versus victims, it is the right to bear arms versus becoming a victim. LIFE, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness does transcend and in fact is the antithesis of victimhood.

2 posted on 02/27/2018 8:21:14 AM PST by MHGinTN (A dispensational perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: All
The AR-15: 'America's rifle' or killer weapon?

Mine is both.

3 posted on 02/27/2018 8:22:16 AM PST by JonPreston
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To: Old Teufel Hunden
This dust up over the AR15 is an attempt for the globalists to cause a crisis, to raise money for the demonicrats and to try to heap more of their crap on the POTUS
4 posted on 02/27/2018 8:23:06 AM PST by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

It’s SUPPOSED to be a “killer weapon.” That’s the whole idea. It’s how Americans can defend themselves, , families, friends, communities, and what little remains of our liberties. If the fellow in the article wants anything less than a “killer weapon,”, he can always go to ToysRUs.


5 posted on 02/27/2018 8:23:41 AM PST by faithhopecharity ("Politicans aren't born, they're excreted." -Marcus Tillius Cicero (3 BCE))
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

Relatively few murders are committed using rifles. More murders are committed with knives than with rifles. Even fists are responsible for more deaths than rifles.


6 posted on 02/27/2018 8:24:46 AM PST by libertylover (Kurt Schlicter: "They wonder why they got Trump. They are why they got Trump")
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

That rifle is BOTH. America’s gun, that is a killer weapon. No contradiction.


7 posted on 02/27/2018 8:25:34 AM PST by 2harddrive
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

I did not even want an AR-15 until they said I couldn’t have one.

I bought one before the election last year, “just in case”.


8 posted on 02/27/2018 8:25:34 AM PST by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here of Citizen Parents__Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

Apparently the outrage over the AK 47 has faded.


9 posted on 02/27/2018 8:25:55 AM PST by Daveinyork
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To: Old Teufel Hunden
Pittsburgh Tribune Review: 'Free Press' or leftist propaganda?
10 posted on 02/27/2018 8:28:11 AM PST by Joe Brower (Nothing is more terrifying than ignorance in action. Particulary when that ignorance is cultivated.)
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To: Lurkinanloomin

I still refuse to buy one. I’ll keep my Saiga TYVM. If I need accuracy at long range there are better choices.


11 posted on 02/27/2018 8:34:33 AM PST by Snowybear
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

The AR-15: ‘America’s rifle’ or killer weapon?


I would imagine a GAU-19 would have both categories fully covered.


12 posted on 02/27/2018 8:34:47 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

The fact that contributes to the hatred of the rifle described in article is the missing walnut. Instead of wholesome looking walnut, there is threatening black plastic and metal.

One wonders what the walnut stock proponents of 50 or so years ago think?

In the Army at least, they sensed a deteriorating supply of black walnut trees. On study of the problem, they went to the wild areas surrounding the magazine areas of the Holston Ordnance Works (now the Holston Army Ammunition Plant ) and planted 30 acres of black walnut trees.

Those trees are still there but there is a problem. The trees did not grow well. The trees never achieved the size desired for harvest and conversion to rifle stocks. The trees were planted in an area where a few feet down, there was a very hard layer that the tree’s tap roots could not penetrate. Lack of root growth retarded tree growth.


13 posted on 02/27/2018 8:38:41 AM PST by bert (K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column)
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To: bert

That would be a good option for an AR. Instead of black, camo (or pink), Cerakote in walnut


14 posted on 02/27/2018 8:47:24 AM PST by Cold Heart
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To: bert

Interesting about the walnut trees!

I agree with you (and many others) about the appearance of the weapon alone being a factor.

The dustup over the AR-15 is the result of demagoguery by the Left, not anything remotely associated with facts. They are just using it as a symbol to attack the 2nd Amendment. It is so much more recognizable to them than a generic handgun silhouette.

You know...it never occurred to me before, but I wonder if its resemblance to the M-16, and the spot that has in the minds of all those leftists holding power now who came of age during the Vietnam war has anything to do with it.

Maybe they really ARE triggered by its appearance.

Which would, of course be a good thing...:)


15 posted on 02/27/2018 8:53:25 AM PST by rlmorel (Leftists: American Liberty is the egg that requires breaking to make their Utopian omelette)
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

Are there life-giving weapons?


16 posted on 02/27/2018 8:54:18 AM PST by JenB987
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

“...Americans own 10 million AR-15 rifles”

LOL...no, they don’t.


17 posted on 02/27/2018 8:55:31 AM PST by mad_as_he$$ (We need common sense FBI reform.)
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

The AR-15: ‘America’s rifle’ or killer weapon?

A man’s best friend worth defending because it defends you.


18 posted on 02/27/2018 8:56:18 AM PST by bmwcyle (People who do not study history are destine to believe really ignorant statements.)
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

All the publicity about this rifle ticks me off because the price keeps going up. Good if you own one but I don’t! and will not pay $1200. There are good enough semi-auto 22 rifles for under $200. I have 2 plus a shotgun for power and a couple handguns for the home. I don’t think I need anything more.


19 posted on 02/27/2018 8:59:22 AM PST by New Jersey Realist ( (Be Nice To Your Kids. They Will Pick Out Your Nursing Home))
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To: Old Teufel Hunden
I'm not a big AR-15 fan. I have a few and they are OK, but when I think of "America's Rifle", I imagine a Winchester 94. I enjoy shooting that rifle, always have, but I don't do much of it anymore.

It doesn't matter though. I'll fight like he11 for that AR just like I would for ANY gun.

Let these tutti-fruitty libs grab anything and get away with it and next month they'll be back to get your Assault-94...for the children...

20 posted on 02/27/2018 9:11:49 AM PST by skimbell
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