AR15 PURCHASE QUESTIONS THAT NEED ASKING

 

 

The Washington Post ran an nice piece about a guy buying his first AR15. He’d wanted one for years and finally the day came.

 

Money, motivation, and gun show all came together for him.

 

The WaPo research seems pretty good, even with a tag of fake news thrown around.

 

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) estimates there have been at least 15 million AR-15s and AR-15-style rifles sold in the United States since 1990, including a dramatic uptick in sales after the assault weapons ban expired in 2004.

The majority of such gun owners — 65 percent — are like Rodriguez in that they have never served in the U.S. military or in law enforcement, and 9 in 10 say their main reason for owning one is for recreational target shooting, according to a 2013 NSSF consumer survey.

 

So another man joined the ranks of AR15 ownership, what’s the big deal? Why run a story that’s been told 15 million times like it’s a unique window into our collective psyche?

 

Is there such a window?

 

I’ll say this up front before I get to the AR15 questions: I shot an M16 on full auto with the rest of the recruits of training company B-4-3 on Ford Ord rifle ranges.

 

It was awesome, but not for the reasons I expected. We all fired the same weapons. The same guys I ate like savages with, sweated through PT with, and marched with, approached the firing line together. Hard assed Drill Sergeants stood watch to make sure none of the “little motherflippers” got out of line.

 

And no one did. Do that often enough and trust builds between guys in the unit. We all got drilled on what to do and what not to do. We failed together and succeeded together, though some failure got a blanket party to help speed success.

 

The Second Amendment doesn’t provide for a blanket party when a modern AR15 owner f—s up during the intense training they get before they can even hold one in their hands. I hear you saying, “what intense training, just give me my gun.”

 

Answer a few questions from the cautious gun dealer before scratching that check.

 

David Chipman, who used to carry an AR-15 for his job as a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, thinks there’s more to it.

“I would compare it to the same reason Americans might want a muscle car or enjoy a muscle car: It’s American-made, it has outsized power,” said Chipman, who left ATF after a 25-year career and now serves as a senior policy adviser to the gun-control advocacy group Giffords.

There’s a sort of “X-Game-type sensibility” to it, he said, a fixture of “American culture that I see most often with men.”

For those who served in the military, there might be “a connection to owning that which you were issued,” he added. “I think there’s also an element for people who chose not to serve that this somehow allows them to connect with that service without them having to do it — like you can kind of act patriotic without having to do it.”

 

#1

If you were a soldier in the Revolutionary War would you have able to stand and fire while those around you dropped from Redcoat bullets? Can you imagine the advantage of an AR15 on one side and not the other? Which side would you have been on, England or America? Take your time answering.

 

#2

During the Civil War could you see yourself charging headlong into cannon fire like the rest of the soldiers on both sides? With an AR15 you would have been an ideal sniper. Who do you target first?

 

#3

In the Spanish-American War you would have been issued a 30-40 Krag. What is this rifle famous for?

 

#4

Tell me how you would have gone over the top of the trench in WWI.

 

#5

Which would you rather do in WWII: D-Day or attacking islands in the Pacific. Why?

 

#6

When did the Korean War end?

 

#7

What was the preferred weapon of a Tunnel Rat in the Vietnam War?

 

#8, #9, #10

(Leave questions for Iraq 1 and 2, and Afghanistan in comments. If you’ve got a good one, know what it might be read in thirty two countries, thirty states, and over a hundred cities boomerpdx.com reaches on a daily basis.)

 

Like the NRA, to which he belongs, Rodriguez doesn’t think an assault weapons ban will stop the United States’ crime or violence. But in practice, he believes in some form of gun control. Background checks should be better enforced, he says. People like Parkland High School shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz should not be able to buy a gun.

“I’m a law-abiding, gun-owning citizen,” Rodriguez says. “If there was a procedure that said I have to go to a class and learn, I’m going to do it.”

If the government said he needed to produce a character witness, provide access to his Internet search history or submit to a home visit or a rigorous mental-health evaluation, he’d comply.

“If it takes a little more to have it, that’s fine,” he says.

He just wants to maintain an America where people are able to protect themselves from one another and from their government.

“I would like a well-regulated militia. That would be nice,” he says, cradling his AR-15 diagonally across his body, muzzle down, the way soldiers are trained to do. “Men who get together, train and do things just in case.”

 

 

Just in case?

 

Here’s a tune up for ‘Just in case:’ You may need to do things you don’t want to do ‘just in case.’

 

You may have to trust the judgement of others who put you at risk doing things you don’t want to do for ‘just in case.’

 

No one assembled with your new ‘just in case’ friends will ask about your mom’s opinion of your new AR15, and if they do you’ll have to fight them to uphold your family pride. It’ll happen.

 

About the 30-40 Krag of the Spanish-American War: It holds the record for shortest time for a rifle officially issued to American soldiers. Back in ancient history a nation got world power status by beating another world power. America warmed up with Spain before moving to the main card in 1917 and 1941, and won with a poorly rated weapon.

 

That Spain wasn’t the world power it once was didn’t matter. Beating them moved America to the big table.

 

Last note on the AR15: owning one doesn’t move you any closer to the big table in your life.

 

Rodriguez’s mother doesn’t understand this interest of his. So when they spoke on the phone last night, he told her about the gun show, but not about the AR-15, because he knew it would just make her mad.

She doesn’t like guns, doesn’t like the idea of “her little boy” — as Rodriguez is certain she still sees him — spending his money this way.

He has tried to convince her otherwise.

 

Why not start with a convincing 30-40 Krag?