There has been much in the media as of late about gun control and the use of the so-called assault rifle. First let’s look at the facts. AR does not stand for assault rifle; the AR stands for Armilite Rifle, the original maker of the AR-15.

Also, none of these firearms used in mass shootings meet the definition of assault rifle as they do not have full automatic capability. They are simply semiautomatic rifles with large capacity magazines in the style of military weapons.

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AR-15s have been available on the civilian market since 1965, they are by no means a recent phenomenon. They were widely available in the 1970s when I was in high school, and a mass shooting was almost unheard of. But you know what we did not have? Cellphones, tablets, Facebook, Twitter, Playstation, X-box, etc. So what has changed? It is fairly simple — culture and society have changed, and not in a good way. Think about it.

Tim Mercer

Sidney

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