Well-balanced, lightweight, fully adjustable and with great pulling power, it is a military-grade weapon adopted by numerous security forces, a favorite of collectors and marksmen.
The AR-15 assault rifle, originally invented by ArmaLite and later patented to Colt’s Manufacturing Company, is a semi-automatic weapon that, due to its size and versatility, has become part of countless armies and security forces. With a semi-automatic mechanism, canceled by law so that it can only fire ‘shot for shot’, it is also one of the weapons preferred by collectors and target shooting fans. However, it has also become the sad protagonist in the latest massacres committed against civilians in the United States and other countries in the world. The latest took place this Tuesday at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children from Robb Elementary School and two teachers were murdered by Salvador Ramos, who bought weapons on his 18th birthday the day before.
The AR-15 is not that it is new. Born in 1959 and produced by Colt since 1964, it made its combat debut during the Vietnam War, where it quickly rose to prominence against the ubiquitous M-16. Initially, the ArmaLite AR-15 and the Colt AR-15 were very similar, but over time the rifle changed significantly.
The current model is manufactured with three barrel lengths -between 406 and 991 mm.-, always ammunition with 223 Remington cartridges (in its version for target shooting) or 5.56 mm x 45 NATO (for military use) – the same of the HK G-36 used by the Spanish army. It is also sold with different barrel lengths from 410mm to 610mm. His weight is three kilograms.
It can mount magazines of 5, 10, 20 or 30 rounds and has a firing capacity of 750 rounds per minute and a range of 550 meters. The rate of fire is 975 meters per second. The muzzle for hiding the flash stands out – installed at the tip of the barrel – which, in addition to reducing the flash of the shot that blinds the shooter and revealing his position, reduces the sound of the blast. You can also mount ‘picattiny’ rails, to install accessories such as flashlights, laser pointers or a grenade launcher.
At these dimensions, this assault rifle is a slightly larger weapon than the old stock-deployed Z-70b submachine gun, which was manufactured by Star and used by the Spanish Armed Forces and Security Forces. Therein lies its success, as this weapon allows the soldier to pass through narrow places and use it for self-defense at relatively close ranges, where a pistol would be more effective. Another advantage is the cam that is extendable for the shooter.
Given Colt’s success with this weapon, as with the 1911 pistol before it, other manufacturers are marketing replicas of the AR-15. In the United States, it is the rifle/carbine most commonly purchased by civilians for self-defense, as permitted by the Second Amendment to the country’s constitution.
Source: La Verdad
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