The Giffords’ memorandum specifically defines “assault weapons” to include the AR-15, stating: “Assault weapons are a class of semiautomatic firearms that are designed to kill people quickly and efficiently. The most common variety, the AR-15, is the civilian version of the M16, a combat rifle that made its debut on the battlefield in Vietnam.
BZZZT! Wrong.
The M16 is the military variant of the AR-15. The AR came first. This is an important distinction to make whenever you talk to libs, because framing it as above adds a connotation that some greedy gun manufacturer was like "ahh, this military-only gun is so amazing at killing people, I should make a civilian version!"
But that's not how it went. The AR was developed as an exploratory effort to meet the new Army rifle procurement contract, but it fizzled out because salty vets in the bureaucracy insisted 5.56 was a pussy round and not worth as a primary caliber. So Colt went back to the drawing board to come up with 7.62 guns to satisfy the Army brass, commercializing the AR-15 in the meantime.
Then after the Air Force ordered some 80,000 (not exactly sure why, tbh, security forces maybe? Still a fuckton of guns) commercial AR-15s off the shelf, pressure was put onto the Army to reconsider 5.56 for the sake of US armed force uniformity in ammunition. So they tried some off-the-shelf, OG AR-15s out in-theater in 'Nam in small unit-level issuances, at which point its combat effectiveness was confirmed.
Then the Army brass insisted it be modified a bit (most notably the forward assist was added), the new modified version of the AR-15 now christened the M16 and the rest is history.
BZZZT! Wrong.
The M16 is the military variant of the AR-15. The AR came first. This is an important distinction to make whenever you talk to libs, because framing it as above adds a connotation that some greedy gun manufacturer was like "ahh, this military-only gun is so amazing at killing people, I should make a civilian version!"
But that's not how it went. The AR was developed as an exploratory effort to meet the new Army rifle procurement contract, but it fizzled out because salty vets in the bureaucracy insisted 5.56 was a pussy round and not worth as a primary caliber. So Colt went back to the drawing board to come up with 7.62 guns to satisfy the Army brass, commercializing the AR-15 in the meantime.
Then after the Air Force ordered some 80,000 (not exactly sure why, tbh, security forces maybe? Still a fuckton of guns) commercial AR-15s off the shelf, pressure was put onto the Army to reconsider 5.56 for the sake of US armed force uniformity in ammunition. So they tried some off-the-shelf, OG AR-15s out in-theater in 'Nam in small unit-level issuances, at which point its combat effectiveness was confirmed.
Then the Army brass insisted it be modified a bit (most notably the forward assist was added), the new modified version of the AR-15 now christened the M16 and the rest is history.
Is that why 223 and 5.56 have different maximum pressures? The 223 came first?
.223 was a mil round that went to a hunting round in the early 60’s. 5.56x45 came out in the 80’s that’s better meet military specs.