Understanding America’s Rifle

The term “modern sporting rifle” was coined to describe today’s very popular semiautomatic rifle designs, including the AR-15 and its offspring. These rifles are used by hunters, competitors, a lot of Americans seeking home-defense guns and by many others who simply enjoy going to the range.

Though modern sporting rifles are increasingly popular, they are too often misunderstood.

The central reason these firearms are misunderstood is political. Though the semiautomatic design used in today’s pistols, rifles and shotguns was invented in the late-nineteenth century and was popularly sold to consumers in America and Europe in the early twentieth century, the modern sporting rifle has been called a “weapon of war” by those who want to ban them.

Though some modern sporting rifles might cosmetically look like fully automatic rifles the military uses, modern sporting rifles by law have many internal differences.

To dispel the myths about modern sporting rifles so that we can have honest and factual discussions about them here are the facts about these rifles.

Modern Sporting Rifle Facts