An AR-15 designed for children shocks even the most jaded gun-control advocates

[Nevilledog]

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Shannon Watts
@shannonrwatts
WTF: The latest despicable development from a craven gun industry that continues to put profits over public safety. However, this product takes gun manufacturers’ sordid history of marketing guns to kids into uncharted territory.

fastcompany.com
An AR-15 designed for children shocks even the most jaded gun-control advocates
The JR-15 recently launched at an annual shooting-sports trade show. Gun safety and reform experts say it’s the most brazen example of marketing guns to kids they’ve ever seen.
4:56 PM · Feb 17, 2022

https://www.fastcompany.com/90721663/an-ar-15-designed-for-children-shocks-even-the-most-jaded-gun-control-advocates

Four years ago this week, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in memory, 17 people were shot and killed by a 19-year-old gunman at a high school in Parkland, Florida. The tragedy spurred a revitalized gun reform movement led by a new generation, with youth coalitions like March For Our Lives calling for common-sense gun legislation. Still, school shootings continue to rise: Between August and December 2021, there were 136 instances of gunfire on school grounds, the highest rate in a 5-month period since the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety began tracking it in 2013. And 70% of school shooters, many of whom have easy home access to weapons, are under the age of 18.

Given this backdrop of ever-increasing gun violence, and especially by young perpetrators, the release of a new rifle directly marketed to kids has astonished even gun-reform experts who have followed the industry’s aggressive targeting of children for years. They say this new firearm, overtly advertised as a kids’ version of the AR-15—the style of rifle used in 11 of the 12 most high-profile mass shootings, including Sandy Hook and Las Vegas—is the most brazen example of such targeted firearms marketing they’ve ever seen. The move is part of a trend by an unstable gun industry in a volatile market to target new potential consumers, but it’s also motivated by a rise of political extremism.

Last month, the JR-15, or Junior 15, debuted at the SHOT Show, billed as the nation’s largest annual trade show for the sport shooting, hunting, and outdoor industry. The event is organized by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), a firearms industry trade association. The rifle is manufactured by WEE1 Tactical, an offshoot of Schmid Tool and Engineering, which has sold AR-15 components for 30 years. A November press release from WEE1 specifically notes the JR-15’s appeal to children: “Our vision is to develop a line of shooting platforms that will safely help adults introduce children to the shooting sports,” it reads. To do that, it’s built a gun whose “ergonomics are geared towards children”: it’s lighter than an adult version, at 2.2 pounds, 20% smaller, and with a patented safety mechanism, not standard on AR-15s, which needs to be pulled out “with some force” and rotated before it can fire. Slight tweaks aside, the company boasts that it “operates just like Mom and Dad’s gun.”

“There’s been youth shooting guns for 80 years, but there’s never been a youth AR-15,” says Ryan Busse, a former firearms executive, now senior advisor at Giffords, one of the leading gun violence-prevention groups, cofounded by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. “I’ve never seen one that’s just an egregiously tactical, offensive weapon of war,” adds Busse, author of Gunfight, a book that discusses the extremist radicalization of the industry.

*snip*

[rickford66]

1. Can you imagine when gangs get hold of these ?

[EX500rider]

3. How would that be worse then gangs with regular AR-15's?

[rickford66]

8. Are they lighter and smaller.

22 ammo doesn't raise as much suspicion as military grade. Might be easier for teens to hold of. Just frightening in general.

[Zeitghost]

7. Why would a gang member

Prefer an underpowered .22LR with additional safety features over an actual AR?

[rickford66]

9. We'll see.

[Zeitghost]

12. What makes this .22 any different

Than the dozens of models already on the market that would attract criminals?

It's certainly not the extra safety devices. It's not the single shot magazine.

I'm going to guess you made an uninformed comment based on a headline and a picture and are now afraid to walk it back...

[rickford66]

14. You're right. Good night.

[Atticus]

22. Agree this would not be a criminal's weapon of choice. However, you mention a "single shot

magazine".

Yes, that's what it comes with, but 5 shot and 10 shot mags are also available for this weapon.

[Zeitghost]

24. Yes

It does not accept high capacity magazines.

[Martin68]

30. More people are killed by 22 rounds every year than any other caliber. Check it out.

[Zeitghost]

31. Without checking

I'd guess that's largely due to suicide and widespread availability, not a preference based on ballistic performance.

[Martin68]

33. If you don't take the time to do the research, you have no idea what you're talking about. Hitmen

use 22s because they are small, and don't make a big bang. A hit to the head or chest with a 22 will make you just as dead as a 44.

[Zeitghost]

43. As I kind of suspected

It's simply not true.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/27/upshot/deadly-bullets-guns.html

There are more articles if you'd like. As I figured 9mm is far and away the choice of criminals. It's deadly and easy to get.

[Martin68]

50. You are right. I looked it up, and gun deaths are positively correlated with caliber size.

Thanks for setting me straight. I fear my knowledge is out of date due to the enormous increase in larger caliber pistols. I own and practice with 22, 380 and 357 magnum pistols, and believe that the 22 has advantages in home defense. Street criminals clearly prefer larger caliber weapons, which might account for the higher death rate for larger calibers. I'll take my chances with a 22 with an 11- cartridge clip.

[NickB79]

34. Provide a citation

[Martin68]

36. Do your own research. You just stated you already know everything and don't need to do any

research. Why should I do your work for you? Typical know-all know-nothing blowhard.

[NickB79]

38. Lol. You made the claim, you back it up

I wrote plenty of papers in college; my professors would have flunked me HARD with your line. You cite your work, or you sound like a Republican.

[Martin68]

49. I'm not writing a paper, I'm engaging in a discussion. Do your own work.

[LiberalFighter]

2. Gun manufacturers need to be regulated.

What and who they can sell to.

[EX500rider]

4. They are.

Under the Gun Control Act (GCA), shotguns and rifles, and ammunition for shotguns or rifles may be sold only to individuals 18 years of age or older. All firearms other than shotguns and rifles, and all ammunition other than ammunition for shotguns or rifles may be sold only to individuals 21 years of age or older.

[LiberalFighter]

26. That is limited.

There should be restrictions on military weapons also. Both to civilians and foreign countries.

[EX500rider]

28. There are.

Military weapons are not for sale to the general public.
Just because a rifle looks like a military rifle does not make it a military rifle any more than NASCAR stickers on my car does not make it a race car.

[LiberalFighter]

37. Say you

[EX500rider]

39. Yes

Military rifles can be selected from single shot, three round burst or fully automatic.

Currently sold civilian rifles are all semi-automatic or single shot bolt-action, they fire one time for each time you pull the trigger.

[Zeitghost]

5. It's a .22 Rimfire

Just like millions of American children learned to shoot with, including my children. Mine leaned on a model called a Cricket, designed to fit the smaller frame of kids so they could comfortably and safely shoot. The only similarities between that gun and a real AR are cosmetic. But then the only difference between an AR and any other semi-auto rifle are also cosmetic.

[JI7]

6. I'm not shocked by it

[Scrivener7]

10. 3, 2, 1 till one of our resident heroes posts about the one

guy in 47 who uses his gun to shoot an intruder rather than his wife or himself or a bystander.

[durablend]

55. Hey, treehouses and play huts have intruders too

click click boom

[hardluck]

11. How's it different from the Nylon 66

My grandfather gave me when I was a pre-teen? I’m not seeing the outrage here.

[Atticus]

13. About 20 years ago, an abused wife in a small southern Illinois town got slapped around

one last time. When her abuser went to work the next day, she went to the new Wal-Mart and purchased a cheap bolt action .22 caliber rifle and a 50-round box of .22 long rifle cartridges.

When her husband got home he found she had locked herself into the master bedroom in their mobile home. Enraged, he easily kicked in the door and found her in the far corner of the room pointing a rifle at him. As he walked toward her, his last words were "Bitch, you ain't brave enough to shoot me!"

She shot him once. He died instantly. She called the police and sat outside on the steps until they arrived. Her husband was "pronounced" on the scene.

Any gun owner who says a .22 long rifle round is "safe" or "non-lethal" is a LIAR---period, full stop.

[Tommymac]

15. Damn man, stop speaking truth in a gun OP.

Haven't you learned yet?

[Zeitghost]

16. Who's making that claim here?

n/t

[Atticus]

20. The manufacturer's brochure ( at link in OP ) describes this "JR-15"---10 rounds of .22 LR available

---]as a "safe" "shooting platform".

The article cited in the OP includes a quote from the NRA which "brushes off" the .22LR as "never a heavy hitter".

[Zeitghost]

23. Context

.22LR is the weakest of all commonly used cartridges. It has little to no recoil and is not suitable for taking any game larger than a raccoon. It's the best choice for teaching children to shoot something bigger than an air rifle. That's not to say it's not dangerous or even deadly.

[Atticus]

25. I guess it depends on one's definition of "commonly used". I know that .22 shorts are still

available.

Further, I have seen videos on line of hunters killing wild hogs with .22 LR rounds.

[Zeitghost]

27. I was debating bringing up shorts

But they are not what I would call common.

I said suitable. A .22LR is not suitable for ethically taking a hog. That does not mean it can't be done. Although I would want something a little bigger if a boar was rushing me. FWIW, I take plenty of boar a year via a depredation permit on farmland with neighbors (those things can tear an orchard up). Nobody would think of using a .22LR, most prefer .30 caliber or larger, I go with .35 Remington in a nice non-tactical Marlin lever action.

[NickB79]

35. I believe it refers to the safety mechanism

It sounds like it has a locking safety too heavy for a child to activate that a parent has to disengage before it can be fired.

[Atticus]

40. It does not say that. nt

[Zeitghost]

44. Thats exactly what the manufacturer is saying

The safety requires enough force to keep small children from turning it.

[Atticus]

47. I had previously only seen that pulling the knob out required "some force". I have now read what

the manufacturer intends and, thought it does not QUITE say, that only an adult can release the safety, that's clearly the intent.

[Zeitghost]

51. I would imagine

Calling it child proof would incur some liability when a kid with outlier grip strength managed to disengage it, but I agree the intent is to make it nearly impossible for a young child to manipulate it.

[Kaleva]

54. Baldwin thought it was safe to point a gun at another

When it comes to guns, "safe" is relative. Like N95 masks don't provide 100% protection against COVID or condoms provide 100% protection against unwanted pregencies or STDs . But using the mask and condoms greatly reduces the chance this they make things safer.

While the 22LR can kill, the reason no military in the world uses it is that the odds of killing someone with such a round is small. It's also illegal to hunt deer with it in most states for the same reason.

[LiberatedUSA]

18. An anti-gun, anti-self defense prosecutor would...

…would try to get her for premeditated murder; that she knew he would get mad and try to bust down the door. That she created a situation to use self defense. Which is an argument that essentially would excuse his actions.

[Celerity]

17. mental AF

[keithbvadu2]

19. AR-15 style rifle - the favored weapon for mass killings of schoolchildren.

AR-15 style rifle - the favored weapon for mass killings of schoolchildren.

[Martin68]

29. West Africa has experience with children wielding assault rifles, and the results have not been

pretty. Check points in Liberia where teens on amphetamines decided whether people they stopped continued on their way or were summarily executed.

[Zeitghost]

32. This rifle...

Would not be considered an assault weapon based on any passed or proposed law I have seen. It's a .22 made to look like an AR-15 type rifle.

[Emile]

41. I'm reminded of the time tobacco company's targeted kids.

[jmowreader]

42. There's one feature on this gun that I really like

On the left side of an AR-series rifle or an M16/M4/M27 is the safety switch. You use your thumb to switch between the various modes. The lever is on one end of an axle which passes all the way through the lower receiver.

On THIS gun, there's a knob on the right side of the safety switch axle. It takes more force to turn it than a kid can generate, and it's big enough around that a kid can't use pliers to turn it. If the parent turns this knob to the "lock" position, the safety lever won't move and Junior can't go out shooting targets, tin cans, rats, stray dogs, the neighborhood bully or anything else.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

45. "When the babies attack, I'll be ready"

Link to tweet

[Dial H For Hero]

46. What a nothingburger. There's no practical difference between this and other semiautomatic .22

rifles designed for the youth market. And by the way, "the most brazen example of marketing guns to kids they’ve ever seen"? Guess they haven't seen vintage gun ads.

[Torchlight]

48. Joe Camel and RJR Tobacco would be proud

Maybe if they trade their mailing lists to each other, they can both increase the size of their knee-jerk defenders by a large margin.

[Zeitghost]

52. There is plenty of knee jerking to go around

This rifle complies with every gun control measure I know of in the US including the various AWB's in place now in various states and previously at the federal level. In addition to that, extra safety features have been added to make it even safer.

[Torchlight]

53. Choose Lucky Strike because "It's Toasted!"

(I think you're making an argument against something I never expressed)