The gun control debate has risen to a fever pitch in the aftermath of the shooting in Orlando, and an unlikely voice has entered the conversation.

The family of Eugene Stoner, the creator of the AR-15, a rifle that has been used in previous mass shootings, said that he never intended the gun for civilian use and that he never owned one himself.

"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," Stoner's family told NBC News Wednesday. "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 AR-15 in the late 1950s, and it quickly became a hit among members of the military. A semi-automatic version of the rifle later became commercially successful.

The weapon used by Orlando shooter Omar Mateen was a Sig Sauer MCX, a "spin off" of the AR-15. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, many thought that the weapon used actually was an AR-15.

AR-15-style guns were also used in the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut as well as the massacres in Aurora, Colorado, and San Bernardino, California.

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"After many conversations with him, we feel his intent was that he designed it as a military rifle," Stoner's family said to NBC News. "What has happened, good or bad, since his patents have expired is a result of our free market system. Currently, a more interesting question is 'Who now is benefiting from the manufacturing and sales of AR-15s, and for what uses?'"