The AR-15, which isn't a brand but rather a generic design, accounts for an estimated 60 percent of all civilian rifle sales in the United States and perhaps a quarter of all firearms sold ... Today, the AR-15 is so popular, with estimates of as many as 5 million in private hands ... [More]So in other words, it's in "common use at the time" and not "unusual"...?
[Via Roger J]
Why even go so specific? Before Eli Whitney all firearms were hand made and hand fitted. Rifles, pistols.
ReplyDeleteSemi-automatoc rifles and pistols regardless of name / manufacturer are in common usage now.
lumpy, I think the "common use" language is important because the Miller case (1939) ruled that a sawed off shotgun was not in "common use" as a military weapon and thus not suitable for militia use. (Obviously, the Justices knew nothing about the combat shotguns used by US troops in WWI trench warfare.) In fact, ARs are in such "common use" that Gabby Gifford's husband just bought one in Tucson then made up a story when he was outed. It's funny isn't it, a gun banner buying the exact type of firearm he wants the rest of us not to have, then squealing because he was outed. As Napoleon the Pig observed, "Some animals are more equal than others." (Orwell, "Animal Farm")
ReplyDeleteMiller was a bad case and should never have been heard, much less decided and used as precedent for so long.
ReplyDeleteOT-Lumpy, did you ever own a'48 Panhead? :I think we met in Austin once. Please PM me if you can. Thanx!
No argument, but if they're going to force it on us, make them eat their own words when it serves our purposes.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine that Mark Kelly also told his wife that he bought "Playboy" magazine to read the articles.
ReplyDelete"748,000 [AR-15s] were made in the United States and not exported in 2012, following a trend of high volumes since 2008, when the figure jumped from 285,000 to nearly a half-million." Over one and a half million rifles in three years? Sounds common enough to me. What vexes many is that demand still surpasses supply, so some in government want to completely eliminate the demand via legislation.