If you're prepared to answer "yes" to all of the above and consider the case closed, then please move on and don't read anymore. This article isn't my attempt to justify anything to you — it's not a defense of what's in my gun safe or of the AR itself. If, for you, my AR ownership is prima facie evidence of my mental instability, sexual inadequacy , lack of a conscience, or what-have-you, then I honestly don't care what you think about this issue.
You can go back to broadcasting your own moral superiority on social media, and I can go back to tuning you out until your rage therapy session is over. No, this article is for the genuinely curious — those who assume that 5 million of their fellow Americans are not inhuman or insane, and who want to understand what set of rationales, no matter how flawed and confused they may ultimately turn out to be, could make an otherwise normal person walk out of a gun store with an "assault weapon.
By the end of this piece, you probably still will not believe that I or any other civilian actually needs an AR That's fine — I wasn't really out to change your mind on that score anyway. I get that you still believe that no civilian should have such a gun.
My only hope is that you'll go forth better equipped to talk about gun control based on an understanding of how real live people view and use these firearms.
Note: Before I get started, if you're like Rep. Alan Grayson or Sen. Bernie Sanders , both of whom I admire greatly and neither of whom seems to know the difference between a fully automatic weapon and a semiautomatic weapon, then we should get something straight before going any further: The AR is not an "automatic weapon.
In contrast, the AR's military sibling, the M16, is capable of fully automatic fire, which means that the gun will keep spitting out bullets as long as the trigger is pressed and the magazine is loaded. The AR was originally designed as a weapon of war, for man-killing and not for hunting or for target shooting — this is an obvious fact. But this is also true of most popular firearms throughout history, including your grandpa's lever action hunting rifle.
The vintage Henry lever action rifle — the quintessential 20th century deer rifle — was originally deployed to devastating effect in the Civil War. With its high capacity, rapid rate of fire, and popularity with soldiers and civilians alike, the Henry was the AR of its day, and it was followed over the years by the invention of the even more effective semiautomatic firearm, and then by a succession of long guns that we now generally take to be suitable for civilian use.
The AR, the gun behind some of the worst mass shootings in America, explained. My point in bringing up the lever action rifle is that civilians have been buying "weapons of war" for a very long time, since the black powder musket days. This is partly because soldiers who come home from wars to enter civilian life often want to buy a version of the weapon they were trained on and trusted their life to.
And it's also because "military grade" is widely if sometimes mistakenly understood to mean "this technology has been tested in the real world, the kinks have been worked out, and its reliability and effectiveness have been proven in the field by an entity with the resources of an entire nation at its disposal. Thus it is that since the dawn of the gunpowder age, gun buyers have snapped up military hardware, because that is often the very best hardware they can get their hands on.
In this respect, today's AR buyers are no different than yesteryear's lever action rifle buyers. This is all part of the reason why I, a civilian, own a military-grade combat weapon.
I don't want to shoot and miss; I don't want the gun to jam because it's dirty or cold; and when I'm hunting game I don't want to hit my target and then have it run off into the woods and die lost and wounded because I didn't "bring enough gun. But, you'll argue, isn't the AR uniquely deadly?
Unlike the lever action rifle, isn't the black rifle a weapon of godlike power, suitable only for putting as much lead on the battlefield in as short a time as possible?
And in their desire to own one of these turbocharged weapons of mass slaughter, which is clearly overkill for anything but mowing down herds of humans, aren't today's AR buyers uniquely twisted and callous? Isn't it time that gun buyers settled for second or third or fourth best, for the "good of the their fellow citizens"?
The slightly longer answer is that your understanding of what the AR is "for" is all wrong, and says more about Hollywood's portrayal of black rifles than it does about how these guns are used in the real world. If the AR were a weapon that's suitable only for indiscriminate, spray-n-pray mass slaughter, then it wouldn't be so popular with police.
There is no conceivable circumstance in which a police officer — not even a SWAT team member — would need to mow down hordes of people.
Yet the AR is the "patrol rifle" of choice for modern police departments from Mayberry to Manhattan. And when you understand why police have adopted the AR, then you'll understand yet another reason why I own one.
The AR is less a model of rifle than it is an open-source, modular weapons platform that can be customized for a whole range of applications, from varmint control to taking out pound feral hogs to urban combat. Everything about an individual AR can be changed with aftermarket parts — the caliber of ammunition, recoil, range, weight, length, hold and grip, and on and on. In the pre-AR era, if you wanted a gun for shooting little groundhogs, a gun for shooting giant feral hogs, and a gun for home defense, you'd buy three different guns in three different calibers and configurations.
With the AR platform, a person with absolutely no gunsmithing expertise can buy one gun and a bunch of accessories, and optimize that gun for the application at hand. You can even make an AR into a pistol. Similarly, the individual members of police and military units can tailor the AR to a specific mission without the help of a professional armorer.
Barrels can be swapped out, calibers changed, optics added or removed, and the gun can be totally transformed for every type of encounter, from a long-distance sniper shot at a hostage taker to a close-quarters drug raid in a crowded apartment complex.
So cops and civilians buy ARs because that one gun can be adapted to an infinite variety of sporting, hunting, and use-of-force scenarios by an amateur with a few simple tools. An AR owner doesn't have to buy and maintain a separate gun for each application, nor does she need a professional gunsmith to make modifications and customizations. In this respect, the AR is basically a giant Lego kit for grownups. The lower consists largely of Daniel Defense's own parts, including their glass-filled polymer pistol grip and buttstock.
This is also the first AR on our list with an ambidextrous safety selector , something I prefer on my rifles. If you're like me, this saves you from having to make this upgrade. This is a fantastic all-around rifle, nearly perfect as it comes, especially compared to some of the other ARs on our list.
The only potential upgrade I'd consider making is the trigger. Sick of the usual Black AR Look? As the name suggests, Aero Precision has a history in aerospace engineering and machining since the early 's. In more recent years, they've brought their extreme attention to detail to the firearms industry. Like Palmetto State Armory, Aero Precision makes the majority of parts in house , while bringing with them a longer track record of manufacturing. As a result of this, Aero Precision comes at slightly higher prices, though is still very affordable.
The only criticism against the company is that they struggle to keep up with the demand for their products , so it's hard to find their complete ARs in stock. In addition to their own website , you may also want to check out Brownells. It has a mid-length gas system and an A2 pinned front sight block.
The barrel is 16" twist rate and made of chrome moly vanadium steel. Over the barrel is a standard M4 mid-length drop in handguard with heat shield. The Aero Precision-built lower has a flared magwell , a standard Mil-Spec buffer system, and a standard M4 collapsible stock. Aero Precision also makes the regular AC , with a carbine-length gas system and handguard. The M4E1 from Aero Precision is more my style, with a free-float handguard over its 16" barrel. You can choose the length of your handguard at check out.
The creator of the military's M4 Carbine, Colt, has long been known for making fantastic ARs for civilian use. While some manufactures have arguably been more innovative in recent years, many gun owners continue to go back to Colt as a name they can trust. With it's fixed front sight base and traditional handguard, the Colt LE is a more classic-looking AR It has a twist 16" chrome-lined barrel , an A2 flash hider, and a carbine-length gas system.
Unlike most of the rifles on our list, it also comes with a rear Magpul flip-up sight. As you may be able to tell from our other top picks, I'm not the biggest fan of fixed front sight bases. I prefer to run a red dot with backup flip-up front and rear sights see the best red dot sights here.
Still, many others like the dependability of a fixed front sight, so go for it if that's your thing. This is the lightest complete "full-sized" AR from a manufacturer that I've seen, at just 4. While it likely isn't the absolute lightest available, Faxon hasn't done anything too gimmicky to get it below the 5 lb mark. The FX has a All parts of the upper are made by Faxon—including the lightweight bolt carrier group—with the exception of the Radian Raptor LT ambi charging handle.
Faxon used more parts from other manufactures for the lower, but chose wisely. Last to note is, like the Daniel Defense rifles, the FX has an ambi safety selector.
I own one of these and love it , but there's a few things to know before spending this much on the FX My Faxon FX First off, the good: If you haven't experienced shooting a sub-5 lb rifle, the difference between this and a 6 lb rifle is really noticeable.
One of the most popular uses of our rifles is target shooting, and it is where most of our customers start their journey as shooters. A day at the range can also create a family or friends bonding experience. Stag 15 rifles are able to be used to hunt a wide range of animals. The 5. Our Stag 15 Super Varminter rifle was designed to hunt larger game such as deer and it utilizes the 6.
Home defense. The AR is a good choice for home protection. Magazine Size: What is Legal? Key Takeaway Determine your purpose for purchasing the rifle.
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