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Despite What You've Heard, the Orlando Terrorist Did Not Use an AR-15 in Attack
June 14, 2016
How did this misidentification happen?
Several news outlets have identified the weapon used in the Orlando terrorist attack as an AR-15 rifle.
“AR-15 Rifle Used in Orlando Massacre Has Bloody Pedigree,” an NBC News headline reads.
“Orlando Shooting Puts Spotlight on AR-15 Rifle,” Newsweek declared.
The Washington Post offered the headline: “The history of the AR-15, the weapon that had a hand in the United States’ worst mass shooting.”
However, it turns out the Islamic State-supporting killer didn’t actually use an AR-15 to carry out the insidious at a gay nightclub that left 49 people dead and dozens more injured.
The terrorist was actually armed with a Sig Sauer MCX carbine. Bearing Arms’ Bob Owens has more details about the firearm and how it relates to an AR-15:
The rifle used by the Islamist terrorist in Orlando was instead a Sig Sauer MCX carbine, a modular, multi-caliber (able to swap to different calibers, including 5.56 NATO, 300 BLK, and 7.62×39) rifle system that sometimes utilizes STANAG magazines common to more than 60 different firearms, but otherwise has no major parts that interface with AR-15s in any way, shape or form.
So how did the weapon become erroneously classified as an AR-15?
It appears that Orlando Police Chief John Mina initially described the weapon as an “AR-15-style assault rifle” and media outlets ran with the classification, several dropping “style” from the description.
The AR-15 is one of the most popular rifles in the U.S. and is regularly demonized by gun control advocates as a “weapon of war.” The semi-automatic rifle is also routinely confused as being a “machine gun” or fully automatic.
(H/T: Sean Davis)
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