6 Reasons to Buy an AR-15 Now

Because of the frenzied push to ban “assault rifles” in general and AR-15s specifically — together with the media’s clear attempt to malign the AR at every turn — Breitbart News thought it would be the perfect time to share six reasons why it makes sense to buy an AR-15 now.

AR-15s are easy to operate — An AR-15 rifle is a simple firearm to operate and understand. Anyone who owns a gun of any kind should be well-acquainted with it so as to know where every bullet will go if you have to grab the weapon and use it in a defensive situation. With the AR-15, acquiring such familiarization is easy.

AR-15s are accurate — AR-15s are popular for hunting because they are accurate weapons. This is also why they are extremely popular for shooting targets. An AR-15 fires one round — and only one round — every time the trigger is pulled, so it is a precision weapon when used in long-range shooting applications. That makes mastery of the weapon for long-range shots both fun and rewarding.

AR-15s are easy to accessorize — AR-15s are the Glock or Colt 1911 of the rifle world; if you need a part for an AR, you can get it. If you need a light, laser, sight, scope, grip, trigger, stock, suppressor, sling, magazine, etc., you can get it. If you want the same grips and stock-types but in different colors, you can get them. In effect, you can personalize an AR-15 so that it’s not just a gun, rather, it’s your gun.

An AR-15 is a “defensive rifle” — Medium.com’s Jon Stokes makes a great point about the defensive uses of an AR-15. He refers to an AR-15 as an “assault rifle” for the purposes of making his argument, then writes: “An assault rifle is a defense rifle, and a defense rifle is an assault rifle; these two concepts are identical — such is the very nature of armed combat, in which one person is trying to prevent himself from being killed by killing the other guy first.” These two aspects — “assault” and “defense” — coalesce perfectly when a police officer arrives on the scene and must end an active threat posed not only to bystanders but to himself as well. “Assault” and “defense” also go hand in hand after a homeowner hears someone kick in his front door and knows he has to seek and stop that intruder before innocent family members are harmed.

AR-15s are an American firearm — The “AR” in AR-15 stands for “Armalite Rifle.” NSSF reports that Armalite is the company that designed the gun in the 1950s. Armalite’s website shows that the company began working on the AR platform via funding from “the Capital Southwest Corporation Dallas, Texas.” To put it plainly, the AR-15 is an American rifle just as the Kalashnikov is Russian weapon.

The final reason to buy an AR-15 is the most simple of all:

Buy one because you can — You have a natural right to keep and bear arms that is bestowed upon you by your Creator, rather than government (so says Thomas Jefferson). Moreover, Justice Clarence Thomas and the late Antonin Scalia explained that the protections on this right cover “firearms that millions of Americans commonly own for lawful purposes.” And guess what? AR-15s are owned by “millions of Americans,” and the pool of AR-15 owners is growing exponentially at this time.

So get one because you can.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.