Rep. Barry Moore Pushes to Make AR-15 ‘National Gun of America’

Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL) announced legislation Tuesday to recognize the AR1-15 rifle as the “National Gun of America.”

Moore stopped by Troy, Alabama’s, Family Firearms to make his announcement and tweeted, “The Second Amendment is as American a right as freedom of speech, religion, & the press.”

He added, “Today I unveiled my bill to make the AR-15 the National Gun of America. We must send a message that we will meet every attack on any of our constitutional rights.”

WHNT reported that upon leaving Family Firearms, Moore said, “The anti-Second Amendment group won’t stop until they take away all your firearms… One rule to remember: any government that would take away one right would take away them all.”

On January 18, 2023, Breitbart News noted Geraldo Rivera’s claim that the “AR” in AR-15 stands for “automatic rifle.” It does not. Rather, the “AR” stands for Armalite Rifle, as Armalite was the first company to produce the AR-15 after it was designed by Eugene Stoner.

An AR-15 is a semiautomatic rifle, which means it fires one round–and only one round–each time the trigger is pulled. It is chambered in .223/5.56 and is wildly popular for self-defense, match shooting, and hunting predators and small game.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) classifies AR-15s as “Modern Sporting Rifles” (MSRs) and estimates that there are nearly 25 million MSRs currently in circulation.

NSSF noted there are more AR/AK-style firearms “in circulation today than there are Ford F-Series trucks on the road.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.