Why Does Anyone Need an AR-15? | Guns Explained

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we're going to answer the common and somewhat aggravating question why would any law-abiding citizen need an ar-15 [Music] [Applause] [Music] as frustrating as this question can be to those of us in the gun community it's a legitimate question to someone who doesn't know much about firearms but before we answer this question we've got to cover a few of the basics and as we do so it will become clear to those unfamiliar familiar with guns that this question doesn't actually make a lot of sense number one first thing you need to know AR does not stand for assault rifle it stands for Armalite rifle Armalite is a firearms company that invented the ar-15 the name has nothing to do with assault okay and the AR has been around a very very long time Armalite first invented the ar-15 in 1958 next ar-15 is like Kleenex and google this that you're seeing here is technically not an ar-15 this is a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 that said everyone caused this an ar-15 because it's an AR variant it's like how we say Kleenex instead of facial tissue or we say google it instead of enter your search query into the internet search engine it's a brand name that is used to describe a type of firearm next ar-15s are not fully automatic ar-15s and their variants are semi-automatic now here's what that this is very important so here's what that means with every firearm in the history of the world two things have to happen for a bullet to come out of the end of the barrel the round needs to be loaded into the chamber and the trigger needs to be pulled a single-shot firearm is one in which the person who is operating the firearm must perform both of those functions manually in other words and with every single shot the operator needs to unload the previous round put in a new round and pull the trigger obviously this presents some problems any situation where one needs to shoot faster than a single shot would allow the one would be screwed that's the idea that perhaps the firearm could perform one or more one or both of these functions was born these firearms are either semi-automatic or fully automatic a semi-automatic firearm simply ejects the previous cartridge and inserts a new cartridge for you but you still have to pull and release the trigger every time you want to fire another round in other words one round fires every time you pull and release the trigger until you run out of ammo a fully automatic firearm does both functions for you as long as you hold down the trigger a fully automatic we'll continue to fire until you run out of ammo this is important because this means that ar-15s are functionally equivalent to virtually every firearm invented since 1902 the first semi-automatic rifle was introduced in 1885 and the functionality really hasn't changed much since then ar-15 s do not offer a higher rate of fire or increased lethality or any of the other strange things we've heard from the media the rate of fire are on the ar-15 is limited like every other semi-automatic firearm including practically every handgun - how quickly in succession the shooter can pull the trigger so if that's true then why are if they are 15 is the weapon of choice for mass shooters they're not most mass shootings are perpetrated with handguns well but then why are a 50 a ar-15 so popular since we know that ar-15s are not substantially different from any other semi-automatic firearm in terms of how fast they can fire and their destructive capabilities it begs the question why is the platform so popular the ar-15 platform is really well designed and it offers a lot of customization options for example ar-15s generally come with adjustable stocks so you can adjust it to your size they also usually come with a Picatinny rail or something like it so it's much easier and quicker to attach a scope or a flashlight or other accessories including those Fable the chainsaw bayonets that I have yet to see essentially the ar-15 platform offers the same benefits of any modular system you can customize it to exactly how you want it to be and for what you're using it for so here's the question why would any law abiding citizen need an ar-15 well hopefully it's become a little bit clearer that this question doesn't make a whole lot of sense the way it's worded since we know that ar-15 ZAR not substantially different from any other semi-automatic firearm it's very difficult to answer this question it's like asking well why does anybody need Google I could you could just use being or does Yahoo still have one yahoo still has one DuckDuckGo where are other search engines well yeah you don't technically need Google but you can also still access the exact same functionality using a different search engine so at that point what's the point of banning Google because we're doing exactly the same things with other services it's the same thing with firearms there are plenty of important reasons why law-abiding citizens need access to semi-automatic firearms but whether we need access to specifically the ar-15 platform is a moot point because even if ar-15 were banned bad people can still access the exact same functionality with other firearms so a better question one that we can address is why do law-abiding citizens need access to semi-automatic firearms there are a lot of reasons why here are the first five that came to my mind number one defending ourselves our families and our property from criminals if someone breaks into my house which by the way happens millions of times per year across the country I want to be able to protect everything that means the most to me if I can only shoot one shot between rounds my ability to do that is virtually gone number two defending against multiple assailants building off the first reason defending against one intruder is is one thing what if it's three bad guys that break into my house and what if it's not them breaking into my house what if they hold up a 7-eleven that I'm in that I happen to be in at the time and they threaten my son pulling out my single-shot and asking for them - hold on a minute as I reload is not gonna cut it that doesn't work number three someone who gets shot once is usually not immediately incapacitated even after getting shot they could have up to 60 seconds of time to keep doing bad things including I don't know getting revenge on the person who just shot them if you only have one shot and you have to reload that is more than enough time for the guy you just shot to take his revenge to fire back if he's armed or to stab you if he has a knife I have talked about this with many many different law enforcement professionals and they are very clear you shoot to stop the threat and a lot of times that can mean putting four or five rounds into the guy and you may need to do that in very rapid succession you don't have time to do this number every single time you need to do it need to shoot off around in that scenario number four as a last line of defense against enemy governments even if you want to argue that a redneck on his porch with his ar-15 isn't gonna be able to do much against the tanks rolling up his driveway does that really take away the rednecks right to try doesn't that rent and still have the right to do his best to preserve his life liberty and property and you know I could point to an obvious example where armed citizens successfully revolted against the most powerful military force in the world and established their own country sound familiar and number five as a last line of defense against our own government government tyranny is real and it happens every day across the world in our own government it's become the style for federal agencies to have their own Enforcement Division independent from the FBI or the Department of Justice these enforcement divisions even have special operations units similar to SWAT teams I see this as a problem and as a threat to my Liberty there were so many people who threatened to leave flee to Canada when Trump was elected because they were afraid that he would destroy our country many people on the right felt the same way when Obama was elected so my question is how can you be so fearful of tyranny of government of tyranny from our current leadership and yet so dismissive of the possibility that we might need to protect ourselves from that tyranny to me that doesn't make sense our Liberty our freedom to access semi-automatic firearms gives us security our freedom to purchase them provides us with the security and safety that we want and need do bad people use firearms to do horrible things yes but as you can learn from last week's episode guns are not the things making them do those bad things they're gonna do bad things regardless of whether they can get a gun that's all I've got for you this week I will see you next week

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Channel: Guns Explained

Views: 181,188

Rating: 4.7344074 out of 5

Keywords: guns explained, rifle, handgun, bullet, ammunition, education, gun control, 2nd amendment, second amendment, ar-15, semi-automatic, fully automatic, fully automatic rifle, semi-automatic rifle, should ar-15s be banned, why does anyone need an ar-15, what does semi-automatic mean, what does fully-automatic mean, cameron porter, mass shootings

Id: 1pqeadItGSw

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Length: 9min 1sec (541 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 22 2018

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