In the 1970's when the AR first made its appearance on the civilian market it had no market. No one was calling for it. It met no specifications that any civilian shooting sports organization was asking for. Unlike a better competitive target rifle, or a better quail and grouse gun, or a better deer rifle, no one was complaining at the time that we needed a better home defense weapon that what we already had available. Isn't it ironic that now the AR is needed because of all the other AR's out there.
1) If there isn't a market for something, you can often create one. Which is what happened. The NRA and the firearms industry kind of conspired on that one.
2) Most AR owndership (and double-stack semi-auto pistol ownsership) is less a functionality thing and more a cultural, status thing.
ARs are horrible home defense weapons. I would not buy one for home defense... also not a great GP weapon. Seems to be mostly a question of style/culture/wannna-be ism.
When I was growing up, the use of self-loading weapons for most recreational purposes was illegal. It was also seen as unsporting. I have owned one self-loading rifle (and it was my first one)--a 22LR used for target plinking. Everything else was a bolt or lever action. Had one self-loading shotgun (Remingto 1100 a great weapon). My competition guns were single or double barrels.
And, to maybe freak some people out--my high school had an actual rifle team (state champs every year I was there).
All of that was before the NRA metasticized into the abomination it now is.
I attribute the rise in AR-15 ownership to two things:
1) the sunsetting of the national AWB
2) the Global War on Terror making the M4 into the iconic American fighting rifle that everyone wanted after that (and many vets bought them after getting out, which made the gun-worshippers who didn't serve want them as well by proxy)
Yeah, but before that, the original market for civilian "assault rifles," including the term, was cultivated in the late '70s and '80s, by gun manufacturers and publishers. Literally the same words that would get you mocked, twenty years later, for supposedly not knowing the difference between full and semiautomatics, were on the covers of gun-industry publications. When the AWB was debated, "gun rights" people derided it as being concerned with "scary" military stylings - which had been *exactly the intended image* for the Soldier of Fortune cosplay market.
In the 1970's when the AR first made its appearance on the civilian market it had no market. No one was calling for it. It met no specifications that any civilian shooting sports organization was asking for. Unlike a better competitive target rifle, or a better quail and grouse gun, or a better deer rifle, no one was complaining at the time that we needed a better home defense weapon that what we already had available. Isn't it ironic that now the AR is needed because of all the other AR's out there.
1) If there isn't a market for something, you can often create one. Which is what happened. The NRA and the firearms industry kind of conspired on that one.
2) Most AR owndership (and double-stack semi-auto pistol ownsership) is less a functionality thing and more a cultural, status thing.
ARs are horrible home defense weapons. I would not buy one for home defense... also not a great GP weapon. Seems to be mostly a question of style/culture/wannna-be ism.
When I was growing up, the use of self-loading weapons for most recreational purposes was illegal. It was also seen as unsporting. I have owned one self-loading rifle (and it was my first one)--a 22LR used for target plinking. Everything else was a bolt or lever action. Had one self-loading shotgun (Remingto 1100 a great weapon). My competition guns were single or double barrels.
And, to maybe freak some people out--my high school had an actual rifle team (state champs every year I was there).
All of that was before the NRA metasticized into the abomination it now is.
I attribute the rise in AR-15 ownership to two things:
1) the sunsetting of the national AWB
2) the Global War on Terror making the M4 into the iconic American fighting rifle that everyone wanted after that (and many vets bought them after getting out, which made the gun-worshippers who didn't serve want them as well by proxy)
Yeah, but before that, the original market for civilian "assault rifles," including the term, was cultivated in the late '70s and '80s, by gun manufacturers and publishers. Literally the same words that would get you mocked, twenty years later, for supposedly not knowing the difference between full and semiautomatics, were on the covers of gun-industry publications. When the AWB was debated, "gun rights" people derided it as being concerned with "scary" military stylings - which had been *exactly the intended image* for the Soldier of Fortune cosplay market.