The AR-15 and Pennsylvania have a history when it comes to gunplay

Thomas Matthew Crooks, who tried to assassinate former Donald Trump on Saturday, used an AR-15-style weapon to shoot Trump in the ear, kill former fire chief Corey Comperatore and seriously wound two other people at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Crooks fired from the roof of a farm implement factory a few hundred feet from the rally with a semiautomatic rifle his father legally purchased. He was wearing a T-shirt promoting “The Demolition Ranch,” a YouTube channel for gun enthusiasts. It’s no wonder Crooks chose an AR-15-style weapon, since the weapon has been used in numerous mass shootings in Pennsylvania and across the United States.

Firearm sales have risen and fallen depending on the political views of the president or presidential candidate, and tend to peak around mass shootings that can spark the need for gun control. according to Wall Street Journal reporter Cameron McWhirter, who co-authored a book on the history of guns titled American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15 with her friend Zusha Elinson.

What is an AR-15?

AR-15 machine gun is the most popular rifle in America, according to Wall Street Journal reporters. The gun has become a symbol of the gun rights debate in the United States, with Republicans legislators wearing lapel pins in the shape of a gun and the January 6 rioters waving flags with an image that says “Come and get it.”

First designed in the 1950s, the AR-15 was originally intended as a lightweight automatic rifle for the U.S. military. It was named after ArmaLite Rifle, the company that originally manufactured the weapon. It was the 15th weapon designed by the company.

The rights to the AR-15 rifle were sold to Colt’s Patent Firearms Manufacturing Co. in 1959. Colt created a version of the weapon for the U.S. military called the M16, as well as a semi-automatic version of the rifle for civilians called the AR-15 Sporter.

“Now you can buy a hot new combat rifle for sporting purposes,” Popular Science wrote about the AR-15 in early 1965, According to the Washington Post.

But the rifle wasn’t popular at first, McWhirter said in an interview. The number of AR-15s owned by civilians in the 1990s was estimated at 400,000. But by the 2020s, that estimate had risen to 20 million, According to the WSJ reporter.

“They are everywhere,” he said.

Its rise in popularity can be attributed to political factors and marketing efforts, McWhirter said. The weapon’s military counterpart’s reputation has also improved over the years, he said.

Gun manufacturers also realized that the model was very profitable, and now, McWhirter says, you can find versions of the weapon in gun shops for prices ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand.

Additionally, the AR-15 is extremely simple to operate.

“It’s designed to be easy on your shoulder, and you can stay on target pretty quickly and easily,” McWhirter said. “That’s what it’s designed to do, and it does that pretty well.”

Colt’s patent expired in 1977, so other manufacturers began producing their own version of the rifle, which is widely known as the AR-15, although some call it AR style or AR-15 type rifles.

“Everybody lined up and started producing their versions of the AR-15 rifle, and everybody made a lot of money,” McWhirter said.

ATF classifies Colt AR-15 as a Semi-Automatic Assault Weaponthough gun advocates oppose the commonly used term “assault weapon.”

According to Trace, a nonprofit news site focusing on gun violence, “military-style rifles” such as the AR-15 were used in the bloodiest shootings, However, most shootings involve the utilize of handguns.

What other high-profile shootings in Pennsylvania involved the utilize of an AR-15 rifle?

Even though the military version of the weapon has an automatic mode, soldiers typically utilize the semi-automatic mode to avoid wasting bullets, so anyone in the United States can fire an AR-15 at the same rate they would in war, McWhirter said.

McWhirter said that while most people who own guns don’t intend to hurt anyone, there are “unstable individuals” among the expansive majority of gun owners who “could use those weapons to hurt someone very quickly, as we’ve seen.”

“They feel like they can go to war with anyone they want,” McWhirter said.

AR-15 style rifles have been used in shootings across the United States.

Nicholas Cruz used one to kill 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018. Payton Gendron, a white supremacist, he used a modified AR-15 kill 10 black people in a supermarket in Buffalo on May 14, 2022. Salvador Ramos I used an AR-15 kill 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, May 24, 2022 The weapon was also used in the July 20 shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado 2012 is killed 12 people and injured 58Sandy Hook Elementary School, December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut., in which 20 children and six workers died, and Las Vegas hotel October 1 2017, in which 60 people died and injured hundreds of people attend a music festival.

If Crooks hadn’t been shot by the Secret Service, “he could have killed a lot of people really quickly,” McWhirter said.

The weapon was the weapon of choice for mass shooters in Pennsylvania even before it became popular. In 1982, George Banks, a former Camp Hill prison guard, used both an AR-15 and an M-16 rifle when he killed 13 people, including his own children, during a shooting spree in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, in 1982.

We move to 2018, when two different mass murderers used the same weapon in the Commonwealth.

In January 2018, Timothy Smith shot and killed four people at a car wash in Melroft, Fayette County. with an AR-15 rifle and a pistol.

Later that year, Robert Bowers shot and killed 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on October 27, 2018. He was armed with an AR-15 rifle and other weapons.

Just a year ago, Kimbrady Carriker went on a shooting rampage with a handgun and an AR-15-style rifle in Kingsessing, shooting and killing five people and wounding several others.

What efforts have been made to ban the AR-15 in Pennsylvania?

Pennsylvania Democrats they want to ban assault weapons like AR-15.

Pennsylvania House Democrats introduced a package of gun control bills that included a ban on future sales of automatic and semi-automatic firearms in January. The package passed the House Judiciary Committee along party linesand was the matter was referred to committee in March.

Actions taken at the national level have also failed to produce results.

National Assault Weapons Ban passed the US House of Representatives in 2022, but it died in the SenateThe House bill received support from all Pennsylvania Democrats in the House. Nearly all Pennsylvania House Republicans I voted against, except U.S. Representative Brian Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.), who represents Bucks County and part of Montgomery County.

According to McWhirter, the federal assault weapons ban that ran from 1994 to 2004 was poorly worded, so companies modified their guns to comply. AR-15 sales skyrocketed before the ban, continued to grow during the banand it rose sharply again after the ban was introduced, which was also influenced by changing views on weapons and the mood after September 11, he added.

Democrats tried to reinstate the 1994 ban last December, but it was blocked by Republicans in the Senate.

The fight remained partisan. Biden he was in favor for renewing federal assault weapons ban and trump campaign he promised to continue to protect the right to bear arms, even after a gun was pointed at his head.

Democrat-controlled states have passed bans while the republican states made the purchase easier weapons like the AR-15. At the same time, court battles are going on over these types of weapons, according to WSJ.