American Gun review: riveting and horrifying history of the AR-15
By: Robert McNamara and John F (the Guardian)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson provide an indispensable read on the assault rifle used in so many mass shootings
How long can we go between news cycles featuring assault rifles? According to the Gun Violence Archive, in 2023 the answer is barely more than 12 hours. This year there have been 565 mass shootings in the US, including the latest horror in Maine - an average of nearly two a day. Those statistics make American Gun, a brilliant new biography of the AR-15, a particularly powerful and important book.
Maine is hunting country. Most say assault rifles are not part of thatRead more
Written by two fine Wall Street Journal reporters, Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson, the book is packed with characters and plot turns, from Eugene Stoner, the publicity-shy inventor who designed the first AR-15 in the 1950s, to the embrace of the gun by Robert McNamara and John F Kennedy, which led to its disastrous adoption as the chief weapon for army infantrymen in Vietnam.
The design was shaped by a simple military adage: "Whoever shoots the most lead wins." Every detail of how the weapon went from a "counter-insurgency" tool in south-east Asia in the 1960s to the most popular way to kill American schoolchildren in the 21st century is included in this harrowing narrative.
Stoner worked with aluminum in one of the booming aerospace factories in California and became obsessed with how he could use new materials like plastic to make a lighter, more effective rifle. He also achieved the "holy grail that gun designers had pursued for generations: how to use the energy released from the exploding gunpowder … to reload the weapon". Soon he had a patent for a "gas operated bolt and carrier system" with fewer parts than a conventional rifle, that would make his "smoother to operate and last longer".
The first third of American Gun is devoted to how Stoner teamed up with an entrepreneur, George Sullivan, who brought his invention to the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation, which set up a new division, ArmaLite, to produce the weapon. The main challenge they faced in selling the gun to the government was a centuries-old tradition of the army designing its own weapons. In 1957, the army announced it had chosen its own M-14 to replace the M-1, the workhorse of the second world war.
But the inventors used the ancient rivalry between the services to get their foot in the door. They socialized with an air force general, Curtis LeMay, and got him to fire an AR-15 at a July 4 celebration in 1960. (Famously, LeMay was a model for the psychotic character played by George C Scott in Dr Strangelove.) LeMay was so impressed by the impact the gun had on watermelons 50 and 150 yards away, he decided the air force should buy 8,500 of them for its security teams.
The new rifle took off inside the government with the arrival of John Kennedy in the White House and former Ford president Robert McNamara at the defense department, with a legion of whiz kids who wanted to invent new forms of warfare. McNamara was eager to prove he was smarter than the generals he inherited, so he overrode them and convinced Kennedy the army should adopt Stoner's rifle instead of the M-14.
One thing which especially impressed the earliest AR-15 users, including South Vietnamese troops, was the way its bullets became unstable inside a human body, tearing through "like a tornado, spiraling and tipping … obliterat[ing] organs, blood vessels and bones". This of course was the same quality that would make the weapon the ultimate scourge of American schoolchildren five decades later.
To mollify the generals, McNamara allowed the Pentagon's technical coordinating committee to modify the gun before it went into mass production. Among other things, the committee changed the kind of ammunition used - with disastrous consequences. In Vietnam, the gun jammed repeatedly in combat. Vivid descriptions of how that jeopardized the lives of American soldiers are some of the most terrifying sections of American Gun.
Dick Backus, a grunt who saw half of his 10-member squad mowed down, summarized the problem: "Our government sent young men to war with a rifle that didn't shoot." A Washington Post editorial reached a similar conclusion: "If the New Left were to set out to compose an insider's indictment of the 'military-industrial complex', it could hardly match the report which a congressional committee has submitted" about the new rifle. Eventually, the army redesigned the weapon, and by 1975 it was working well again.
Richard Morlock, a survivor of the Maine mass shooting, pays his respect at a makeshift memorial. Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP
The second half of American Gun highlights the role of Wall Street hedge fund owners in consolidating the gun industry and making the AR-15 the weapon of choice for insecure American males. Some of the most disgusting details are about an ad campaign proposed for readers of Maxim. The first ad was a picture of a gun pointed at the reader, with the caption "MINE IS SO DEFINITELY BIGGER THAN YOURS". A website for the Bushmaster rifle read: "The Bushmaster Man Card declares and confirms that you are a Man's Man, the last of a dying breed, with all the rights and privileges duly afforded."
Even more disgusting was the strategy of private equity owners who bought up large portions of the gun industry in the early 2000s. They made sure video games included their brand of rifle because it would "help create brand preference among the next generation who experiences these games, allowing [us] to win our fair share of these young customers".
There is so much more in this book, including the collapse of political will to reform gun laws. The authors also detail how fake the 10-year ban on assault rifles really was, because the bill authored by then California senator Dianne Feinstein contained so many loopholes, gun manufacturers just made tiny tweaks and kept producing weapons.
And because Congress had made the AR-15 forbidden fruit, sales actually exploded. In 1995, Americans owned about 400,000 of them. "By the end of 2021," McWhirter and Elinson write, "that number jumped to more than 20 million."
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American Gun is published in the US by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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And yet, significantly more people are killed via handguns and knives in USA than the evil black gun.
Where is that horrified outrage?
Where?
And what about drunk drivers?
Or distracted drivers ….
According to Johns Hopkins about a quarter of a million people are killed due to medical errors every year, making it the 3rd leading cause of death in the US, maybe we need common sense doctor control laws?
Common sense is not a strong point for most gun control nuts.
Most of them are texting.
Amen to that. Most do not even know the true definition of assault rifle. Said article is misleading in the differences between the civilian marketed semi auto AR-15 and the military grade full auto capable/selective fire M16/M4 carbine. In addition, the AK 47 has a higher rate of fire and spits more lead than the AR 15 or the M16.
Why do you think insurance rates are going through the roof!
Exactly, and how Hollywood uses on-screen violence and characters using guns to solve problems desensitizes children to the consequences of guns while increasing their interest in them. It’s like Hollywood, the gun industry and their private equity investors are all in cahoots.
Instead of portraying guns that reflect the public crisis we that are in, they put profits over responsibility and feed the problem.
You missed the forest through the trees!
* just a hash to track these comments for later reading , i am sure this will get interesting , its hunting season here and im getting ready to head north to partake in some time with family and enjoy the outdoors and possibly fill the larder and freezer, but will see what responses this generates .
Yep, would like to track this for later reading.
Evening Mark...what do you hunt and what sort of gun do you use??
Gmorning. Depends on the quarry,currently I'm after deer and American elk,think an NZ red stag for size comp. I'm currently trying out a new rifle calibre, and scope combination.
A bolt action sporter in 6mm creedmore,with a more modern scope/optics. Already filled an antelope tag/ permit with a 493 meter shot about a month ago with it.
I use a Weatherby 7mm Mag. Freakin thing is almost scary in an SCP sense. I almost believe all I need do is point it in the general direction of what I'm shooting at and it will hit it. It was actually stolen, spent 2 years in police custody and, when I finally got it back, shot like I had just dialed it in yesterday. It has never missed and never requires a second shot. Sort of freaks me out in a Steven King sort of vibe, to tell the truth.
At my age, I have had anything from a .22 and on up to a .338 win mag, grew up mostly with the venerable 30-06,bolt pump and semi, shot them all.
I am finding that I'm open to finding the "right" cal for myself alone for whatever I'm after, as long as it gets what needs done done within my own set of morals and ethics.
That means fair chase and a humanely as possible kill.
Evening..we have feral deer here so understand the size etc...
We had some clowns in my area who had deer farms went bankrupt and what did they do... released them into the wild and because they have no predators here numbers have exploded..
So now they have to cull them..2,000 have been shot has not put a dent in the numbers..
People are just so bloody stupid sometimes releasing animals into the wild that are so destructive..
Own a Savage 110 chambered for the 6.5mm Creedmoor round. One hole groups at 100 yards and extremely accurate out past 1,000 yards.
My Bushy AR-15 in 5.56 can't come close to that even with match ammo.
That being said, I'd have no qualms about taking deer at 500 yards with any of the modern 62 grain 5.56 hunting rounds in my Bushy.
7mm Rem mag is a very accurate, flat shooting, long-distance round but has much sharper recoil than my .338 Lapua, 6.5 Creedmoor or 30-06 Springfield.
Time to open a hunting club an import American deer hunters. Could be lucrative.
Never shot a .338 Win mag.
Does it kick more than a 7mm Rem mag?
Ahh no... all good here...we have our own deer stalkers...they also use helicopters as well and cull them from the sky or on foot...
My personal opinion is no, it's more of it rocks you back more than kicks, it uses the same type and amount of powder as a 300 win mag but is pushing a bullet of the same weight down a bigger bore, for some reason it feels to me to take away some of the recoil. The other thing is with all things the same both get different velocities with the 338 being slower.
This new 6mm creedmore falls into the 243 win category from my view, same parent cartridge as the 6.5 but necked down by a half mm. The 6.5 can load heavier bullets but as they say, placement is almost everything.
The antelope I got was 530 yards away, with a little adjustment of the scope the round went about an inch and a half low under its right eye as it was facing me looking somewhat left,dropped like a lightswitch had been flipped, and no waste of edible meat.
Up until just recently I owned a WW II vintage German Mauser 98k bolt action rifle that is the most accurate bolt-action I ever used. The 7.92x57mm round was just right for me for anything from cayote to large deer. It was accurate for me at 300 to 400 yards with iron sights. I loved that rifle but due to Rheumatoid Arthritis and a torn rotator cuff in my right shoulder, I could no longer fire it. I have since bequeathed it to my oldest grandson in Oregon. He loves it as well.
The 7mm rem mag in a model 700 is my least favorite to shoot. That damn thing brings on a flinch.
It has more of a sharp slap than a pushy recoil.
Next to my 12 gauge Berreta inertia auto with 3" 00 magnum rounds it hurts the most.
I just got back from my trip.
I’m riveted. Absolutely riveted ……
Did the shooter in the recent Maine shooting use an AR-15?
Nope.
(It was an AR-10)
Yes-- that's not a typo-- it is "10" not "15".
OK, I admit it. Before reading several articles about this massacre, I had not even heard of an AR-10, let alone knowing what is was.
(And apparently no one else here had heard of an AR-10 either-- strange!)
Oh I had heard of it, all it tells me is if it shoots 5.56 or 7.62 rounds.
AR 15 shoots 5.56 Nato ,AR 10 usually shoots 7.62 nato.
There are other clambering for both.
Thanks for the intel. I couldn't tell from the photo and none of the reports I read specified.
Still wondering why the US has gone to 6.8mm over the 7.62 or 5.56. The ballistics are worse than 7.62 and not that much better than 5.56.
No more scavenging rounds.
Of all the snake oil products thought to enlarge the size of your penis, the military grade long gun is both the most popular and least effective.
[Deleted]
I can barely fit this thing in my boxers as it is. Your interest in my penis is noted though.
Bullshit like this is a key reason why we never make any progress on gun regulation.
Fact: Gun Violence Archive defines a "mass shooting" as 4 or more people wounded or killed.
Fact: The VAST majority of those incidents have less than nothing to do with AR-15s.
So the real question here is whether or not the author doesn't understand those facts and is just too ignorant to be talking about gun regulation or does understand those facts and is too dishonest to listen to about anything.
I find it somewhat fascinating that none of the comments to this seed address one of the most important parts of the article
It is called marketing and should be no surprise. Just like women in bikinis selling cars, candy cigarette's of old, or even a political party saying you have to vote for them to save democracy. It is all marketing. Welcome to the USA.
The AR-15 is designed and created to shoot people. It was originally intended to be a battlefield weapon, not for shooting pumpkins or watermelons to smithereens out beyond the barn.
Because it is intended to be used on people, the marketing absolutely matters. They sold owning one of these as "getting your man card".
There is a difference between the military AR 15 ( battlefield weapon) and the one available for civilians (shooting pumpkins or watermelons to smithereens out beyond the barn). It is disingenuous to try and conflate the two.
It is ridiculous to make the argument that an AR 15 is better suited for civilian usage than military usage.
Never said that. Try not to put words in my mouth. What I did say was there is a military AR 15 that is not available to civilians. And the AR 15 that is available to civilians is different than the one designed and created for the military.
Hopefully you all will stop soon.
So are all the handguns used in the vast majority of "mass shootings".
Way out here on the ranch, when I investigate some noise in the night, I pick up my old Glock 17. It's equipped with a flashlight/laser combo, tritium night sights and a 55 round drum magazine. The perfect pillow queen.
It's much more maneuverable than the AR-15 and only requires one hand.
A civilian can own a full auto AR-15 or M4. It just takes money and a clean record.
The difference is between full auto and semi auto.
Only in a scenario with multiple targets does a full auto make sense.
Also believe the gun has to be built pre 1986?
The author ruined his credibility with that statement.