The AR-15 was never meant for civilians, inventor’s family says [View all]

[LuckyTheDog]

The AR-15, or America's rifle — as the National Rifle Association (NRA) likes to call it — was never intended for average Americans at all. That's according to the family of the assault rifle's inventor, who spoke to NBC News about the subject in an article published Thursday. The inventor died before it became a popular civilian gun and the weapon used in many mass shootings.

"Our father, Eugene Stoner, designed the AR-15 and subsequent M-16 as a military weapon to give our soldiers an advantage over the AK-47," the Stoner family told NBC News. "He died long before any mass shootings occurred. But, we do think he would have been horrified and sickened as anyone, if not more by these events."

Stoner designed the gun in the 1950s. His surviving children and adult grandchildren talked to the news outlet through phone calls and emails, but opted to speak as a group in order to talk openly about a controversial subject. Some gun control advocates have argued that assault rifles were never intended for civilian use and should be banned. A national ban on certain assault rifles expired in 2004 and wasn't renewed. The family did not make any policy recommendations.

MORE HERE: http://yonside.com/ar-15-never-meant-civilians/