A reader corrected our headline from last week, in which an AR-15, seized during an arrest, was referred to as an assault weapon.
I am not a gun expert. So, I turned to the internet to educate myself.
The more images I looked at online, the less difference I saw between a military assault weapon and an AR-15 rifle (which actually stands for Arma-Lite Rifle, after the company that developed it).
Which makes sense, as an AR-15 is described as a military “styled” weapon, made to look like its counterpart.
The differences are not cosmetic, but in the way they function.
A military “assault” weapon is similar to a machine gun. You depress the trigger, and the bullets may be expended continuously or with a select option of a three-round burst.
An AR-15, on the other hand, functions as a semi-automatic weapon, firing only one round with each pull of the trigger.
Regardless, when reading the report of a loaded AR-15 rifle being recovered, along with drugs and cash, during a traffic stop, I can only assume the owner was willing to use this weapon during the course of illegal activities.
