"AR" doesn't equal Assault Rifle?!

**Fire-stick** · 28-09-2023, 22:46

A different background from an alternative source.
A quick Google fu exercise for populated info.

https://www.npr.org/2018/02/28/58886...gn%20to%20Colt.

Here's a quick history lesson on why AR-15 has become the umbrella term for a range of semi-automatic rifles made by a host of gun makers.

"AR" comes from the name of the gun's original manufacturer, ArmaLite, Inc. The letters stand for ArmaLite Rifle — and not for "assault rifle" or "automatic rifle."

ArmaLite first developed the AR-15 in the late 1950s as a military rifle, but had limited success in selling it. In 1959 the company sold the design to Colt.

In 1963, the U.S. military selected Colt to manufacture the automatic rifle that soon became standard issue for U.S. troops in the Vietnam War. It was known as the M-16.

Armed with that success, Colt ramped up production of a semiautomatic version of the M-16 that it sold to law enforcement and the public, marketed as the AR-15.

When Colt's patents for the AR-15 expired in the 1970s, other manufacturers began making similar models.

Those gun makers gave the weapons their own names, yet the popularity of the AR-15 turned it into a generic term for all types of AR-15-style rifles.

**oafpatroll** · 28-09-2023, 23:01

A serial gun buyer friend of mine refers to anything from a micro uzi to a barrett 50 as an AR. Drives me nuts and he loves it. He also makes sure to call call cartridges bullets and bullets heads while filming me.

**Vaal** · 29-09-2023, 07:13

Now what should I call my Mini14?
It doesn't even have plastic "furniture" on?
Or my Stag Arms or my PCC which both appears to look the same?
LoL

**Gekishibu86** · 29-09-2023, 17:57

AR stands for ArmaLite Rifle.

**oafpatroll** · 29-09-2023, 19:52

Originally Posted by Gekishibu86

AR stands for ArmaLite Rifle.

They gave the same prefix to all their designs including a sporting shotgun so I don't think that's accurate.

**Fire-stick** · 29-09-2023, 20:37

AR stands for Attack Rifle...

My Diana break barrel, 0.477 calibre, fast action, filly automatically, semi hard springer, passionately plunger driven, deadly aminal killing, fully machine gun with a pocket-filled of-pellets-and-a-few-in-the-gum rifle has taken down many a killer bush-bird-but-in-roof-dwelling peegeon and invasive Een-deon Miner...

Dead they were...
Twitching and twerking until their last ripple of energy flowed through their veins...

**aimpoint** · 29-09-2023, 20:43

Originally Posted by Fire-stick

AR stands for Attack Rifle...

My Diana break barrel, 0.477 calibre, fast action, filly automatically, semi hard springer, passionately plunger driven, deadly aminal killing, fully machine gun with a pocket-filled of-pellets-and-a-few-in-the-gum rifle has taken down many a killer bush-bird-but-in-roof-dwelling peegeon and invasive Een-deon Miner...

Dead they were...
Twitching and twerking until their last ripple of energy flowed through their veins...

You left out “high powered”

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**Fire-stick** · 29-09-2023, 20:51

Originally Posted by aimpoint

You left out “high powered”

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It's an intermediate calibre... Hence the semi hard spring.
But..

Get it wound up, pumped up and worked up and a high powered calibre gun is then at play...

**Vaal** · 29-09-2023, 23:29

Originally Posted by Fire-stick

AR stands for Attack Rifle...

My Diana break barrel, 0.477 calibre, fast action, filly automatically, semi hard springer, passionately plunger driven, deadly aminal killing, fully machine gun with a pocket-filled of-pellets-and-a-few-in-the-gum rifle has taken down many a killer bush-bird-but-in-roof-dwelling peegeon and invasive Een-deon Miner...

Dead they were...
Twitching and twerking until their last ripple of energy flowed through their veins...

My BSA Meteor became a full power attack rifle, the barrel attacked you when you pulled the trigger when the barrel was in the fully "knakked" position.