American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15 by Cameron McWhirter
Lest you think I read nothing but crime novels (mostly true!) I read and recommend American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15, which sounds provocative and dull. It is neither.
American Gun is a tale of how a military weapon designed specifically for guerilla warfare in Southeast Asia became the weapon of choice for civilian gunowners through corporate greed, mangled legislation, terrorism fears, and Second Amendment enthusiasm.
Not narrative nonfiction, but eminently readable. If you want to understand where we are on gun control, it is a must read.
The AR-15 was designed by Eugene Stoner, a master tinkerer and an employee of ArmaLite (later acquired by Colt). The AR-15 was created to meet the U.S. military’s need for a lighter, most robust automatic weapon for the post WWII guerilla warfare in Southeast Asia and would replace the Pentagon’s venerable M1.
However, the Pentagon was annoyed and embarrassed that a dinky outfit in Southern California (of all places!) created a suitable weapon where their own engineers had failed. When reluctantly and after years of lobbying, the Pentagon awarded ArmaLite the contract, the military made over one hundred modifications, including crucially opting for cheaper ammunition. This change caused the gun to jam resulting in the unnecessary deaths of thousands of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam. After public outcry and congressional hearings, the Pentagon quietly fixed the problem but never admitted any wrong doing.
Having proven the worthiness of (their version) of the AR -15, Colt sought to explore the commercial market for the weapon. But gun owners were not interested, and sales were anemic—at first. As one gun owner said at the time,
“Hunters pride themselves on long-distance accuracy, on being able to fell game with a single accurate shot. What self-respecting hunter needed a rapid-fire rifle?”
But if hunters weren’t buying the AR-15, terrorists, revolutionaries, members of extremist groups, drug dealers, gangsters as well as members of law enforcement were loading up. The first mass shooting of U.S. civilians with an AR-15 took place in 1977 when a twenty-six year old unemployed truck driver killed six people outside a nightclub in Klamath Falls, Oregon.
U.S. civilians began to worry about their personal safety, and savvy entrepreneurs responded. Small gunmakers started manufacturing AR-15 style assault rifles and became very rich. Hedge fund guys took note, and soon there was BIG money in guns. The AR-15 was prominent in gun shops, the shooting range, and gun magazines.
The rifle’s appeal were several. It was lightweight, easy to aim, divertingly accessorize-able with handguards, barrels, butt stocks, triggers, pistol grips, and many other parts available in different styles and colors, and most obviously, quickly deadly.(As an example, in Dayton, OH, in 2019 Connor Betts opened fire with an AR-15 pistol with a hundred-round drum attached and got off forty-one rounds in about thirty seconds before the police arrived. Nine dead, fourteen with nonfatal gunshot wounds, another two dozen injured.)
By the 1990s, an increase in violent crime, specifically gang related drive-by shootings, galvanized civilians, law enforcement, and Washington to do something about the assault rifle. This was not the first time gun violence drove legislation. The violence and the assignations of King and the Kennedys in the 1960s prompted the Gun Control Act of 1968, but the AR-15 didn’t figure into that debate as it was still considered a military weapon.
In 1994, Senators Feinstein, Metzenbaum, and DeConcini introduced the 1994 Crime Bill, which included the ten year assault weapon ban. With bipartisan support, it became law. The NRA, whose leaders had famously flipped from sports shooters to Second Amendment absolutists, was furious and has not let up their fundraising and fuming since.
With its many loopholes, the 1994 bill did not stop the manufacture or sale of assault weapons. And after the 9/11 attacks, sales of the AR-15 skyrocketed. John DeSantis, chief executive of Bushmaster Firearms, said that post 9/11, “You could sell anything if it looked a little bit military.”
Gun control was immediately a non-starter in Washington, and the 1994 assault ban was not renewed in 2004.
And so it goes.
The last few chapters of the book cover more recent legislative efforts and various solutions to the problem of assault rifle violence.
But whatever the answer, it will not easy; in 2021, American civilians owned more than 20 million ARs.
WHAT OTHER REVIEWERS SAY
Jonathan Eig, author of King: A Life: “American Gun is an unforgettable story of American ingenuity and mayhem, built with hard-core reporting and gripping prose. This is social history at its finest.”
WHO WROTE IT
Cameron McWhirter is a national reporter for The Wall Street Journal based in Atlanta and the author of Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America. Zusha Elinson is a national reporter writing about guns and violence for The Wall Street Journal. He has also written for the Center for Investigative Reporting and the New York Times Bay Area section.