![]() By comparison, weapons such as the AR-15s used in many mass shootings, can liquefy organs because of their much higher projectile speeds.” The smaller caliber also has a lighter recoil, allowing more precise fire, and allows soldiers (or mass shooters) to carry three times as much ammunition for the same weight.”Ī recent NPR report put it even more vividly:īullets from weapons such as handguns typically pierce straight through a target, medical experts say. So, AR-15 ammo is deadlier than a comparatively larger bullet. 223 tumbles and gouges its way through muscle and bone. 223 ammo has a larger and longer casing behind the bullet, with much more powder, pushing it to a high velocity.Įugene Stoner, the inventor of the AR-15, knew that a small bullet with a lot of power becomes unstable when it meets flesh. 22 long rifle cartridge, made for plinking and squirrel shooting. 223 caliber ammo, with a bullet that is about the diameter of a pencil eraser. But the destructive capability of the AR-15 is not in its mechanism of fire, but in the ammunition it uses. The AR-15 is the civilian version of the fully auto M-16, the standard American small arm since Vietnam. As commentator Max McCoy explained last week in a powerful essay for the Kansas Reflector: ![]() That’s not, however, what usually happens with assault weapons. We think of the bullet carving path into the body that matches its diameter. Most Americans grow up with the image of a soldier or criminal being shot, clutching at their stomach or chest to cover the entry point, and then lifting their hand to reveal a small red spot. What’s more, because the “magazines” attached to these weapons can hold dozens of rounds (i.e., bullets), a shooter can fire off numerous shots in short order.īut what really sets these weapons apart from the guns so many of us have seen in TV and movies is the damage they do. ![]() Simply put, as the image above reflects, a semi-automatic rifle looks like the kind of weapon one might see in a theater of war or an emergency involving a law enforcement SWAT team. That said, it would be inaccurate to picture such weapons as in any way resembling the traditional image of a “rifle” that a layperson might retain from, say, watching an old TV or movie Western. since the 1930s it allows the shooter to simply hold down the trigger once and literally spray bullets - a semi-automatic rifle like the AR-15 and its kin, requires the shooter to repeatedly pull the trigger to fire each round. Unlike an automatic weapon such as a “machine gun” – largely banned in the U.S. Justice Department described at the time as “semiautomatic firearms with a large magazine of ammunition that were designed and configured for rapid fire and combat use.” (Congress allowed the ban to expire in 2004, despite the prohibition being highly effective.) In 1994, the federal government enacted a ban on the purchase of these weapons – what the U.S. The recent horrific mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, have caused Americans to intensify their longstanding national debate over so-called “assault weapons.” An individual fires an AR-15-style rifle at a shooting range in Greeley, Pennsylvania.
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