The Truth About the AR-15 . . .

The commercial version of an AR-15 (and its variants) is a semi automatic firearm.  Like a semi automatic pistol it can only fire one cartridge per trigger pull.  Pretty common amongst modern weapons.  The key word here is "commercial" which means it is available to the general public.  It is not the same as the AR-15 and its variants as used by the US military establishment that in and of itself can fire more than one round per trigger pull.  That gun, is an assault rifle, and can fire single, multiple of three rounds or empty the clip if so selected on one trigger pull.

Many people confuse the general use of "automatic weapon" with the more specific term semi automatic.

As a matter of record automatic firearms have been banned from the general public since the National Firearms Act of 1934.  That includes military assault weapons.  Your local police department or the county sheriff has a literal arsenal of those kinds of firearms.  The general public does not have them, can not buy them and it is illegal to modify the commercial version of the firearm.

So in reality, the commercial version of the AR-15 is no different than any other multiple round magazine rifle made and sold in the US of A.  It looks tough, very military but it is not repeat not an assault weapon.  It uses a common .223 high rifle powered round.  The commonly available AK-47 is similar to the AR-15 except it uses a common 30 caliber rifle round.  It to in the commercial version is available to the general public and is a semi automatic weapon.  In its military version it is a true assault weapon with a fully automatic capability.  We have many automatic shot guns used in hunting all over the place.  The shot gun is really a semi automatic firearm, that is one shot per trigger pull.

Senator Diane Feinstein had an federal act passed that tried to define AR-15 and like weapons in the commercial version as assault weapons.  That law expired and in spite of the many attempts by the gun toting Senator (Senator Feinstein has a conceal carry license and is said to carry such a firearm at all times when in the public) to renew the act, the Congress of the US has refused to do so.  The act was failure.  The act was an attempt to change the definition of the rifle.  It did not work.  Many states, including Senator Feinstein's home state of California have banned the weapon.  But in general it is not an illegal firearm in the US thus is readily available in next door Arizona or Nevada.  Nothing prevents you from buying the weapon in Nevada and bringing it back (albeit illegal in California) home in California.  No one that I know that had such guns in California rushed to turn their weapons to the authorities in California.

A word about the National Rifle Association (NRA).  It came into existence after the Civil War and its objective was the protect the guns rights of the former salves.  Many people, especially in the southern US, were afraid if the blacks got weapons they would rise up and slay people.  That most assuredly did not happen.  And because of the NRA, the US Constitution 2nd amendment remains intact.  We, the citizens of the United States, have the right own and bear arms.  It is said that the Japanese in WW-II ruled out any attacks against the continental US would fail because the general population had so many guns.

Remember it is not the firearm that kills, it is the human that pulls the trigger that kills people.