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From military weapon to cultural symbol: how the AR-15 has defined the US gun debate
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2023
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Stoner's AR-15 and the AR-15 of today are pretty different. Now it's a genericized term for a firearms platform.
Think of it like a PC. It's about parts being mostly compatible. Lots of parts are interchangeable, though not everything matches. For instance the ammunition dictate the barrel and bolt size, and the buffer tube determines which stocks can be used, etc.
The common feature on pretty much all of them is the lower receiver, which is different than it was for Stoner and for military guns.
AR-15 receivers don't accommodate a part that's required for full-auto or burst fire, and modding them to accept the part is a super duper ultra felony - even if you don't put the part in.
Oh - and the weapon from Armalite used for pilot survival is a COMPLETELY different firearm. It's the AR-5, and was a 22 hornet takedown rifle that is not useful for combat at all. You can buy one today in .22lr called the AR-7 or "Henry Survival Rifle."
The "AR" designation just means they were designed by the Armalite Rifle company - the AR-17 was actually a shotgun designed for bird hunting.
Point of fact: AR-15 is actually a trademark owned by Colt. That's why there's the Ruger AR-556, and the S&W M&P 15 Sport II, which are marketed as AR-15 style rifles. Kinda like Styrofoam; people misuse the trademark (esp. styrofoam cups; such a thing has never existed) regularly, but it's still owned by the Dow Chemical Corp. (Or was; I think they sold that division off to E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co.)
The trademark probably won't last too much longer though, as it's become genercized AND Colt wasn't the inventor of the product or the name. They also no longer manufacture civilian AR-pattern rifles, so they're on really shaky grounds for defending the name.
Bayer lost the trademark for Aspirin. Xerox almost lost the trademark to their own name, and had to actually start advertising their products as "photocopiers" instead of "Xerox machines."