And once the economic doldrums took hold of the gun industry in the mid-2000s, it was the sustained enthusiasm for ARs that kept the gun industry afloat and drove most of the innovation. Armed with nothing more than a phone and a credit card, a gun owner could reinvent his rifle by changing out barrels, handguards, triggers, stocks, and optics. It ushered in a golden age in the mid- to late ’90s during which the pages of publications like Shotgun News were filled with dozens of ads hawking products for ARs. The early innovators also weren’t afraid to take chances, inventing new categories of products that had never been associated with ARs before. The adaptation of the Picatinny rail system created new possibilities for accessories. It was during this period that the AR realized its potential as a modular platform. Into that vacuum stepped entrepreneurs and innovators like Randy Luth, Karl Lewis, and Jack and Teresa Starnes who saw the potential of the AR and started introducing everything from aftermarket parts and accessories to complete rifles. There is no subset of data that addresses ARs specifically.) It is the high-profile shootings that motivate these people and their belief that there is no “need” for ARs, despite the fact that “needs” do not figure into the discussion of our well-established Constitutional rights. (In 2014, rifles were used in 248 homicides, compared to 11,961 killings of all types, including 660 by unarmed attackers, according to FBI statistics. Never mind that ARs are used in the barest minority of firearms crimes, and that crime rates continue to fall to historic lows. As such, efforts to restrict, ban, confiscate, and otherwise keep the AR out of civilian hands is their top priority.
For these folks, and their like-minded elected representatives, features like pistol grips, flash hiders, collapsible stocks, and high-capacity magazines (insert your favorite “clip” quip here) are what separate the AR from other semi-auto rifles, elevating it to the status of Public Enemy Number One. Among anti-gunners, it is a malevolent object, something with a sole purpose: to kill as many people in as short a period of time as possible.
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