The National Gun of America
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Give me Liberty
Rodger Williamson
If someone had asked me, “What gun should be the National Gun of America?” My answer would be subjective. Shooting from the hip (pun was not intended, but I still find it amusing), my first answer probably would have been the Winchester Model 1894 designed by John Browning.
The Winchester lever action rifle is known as the gun that won the West, and the Model 1894 in .30-30 cal. has been a staple hunting rifle for more than a century. But there are different categories of “guns,” including rifles, pistols, shotguns, and machine guns. The Winchester 1894 would be my vote for a rifle, with a very close runner-up rifle in the M1 “Garand” chambered in .30-06, designed by John C. Garand in 1928, and after adoption by the U.S. Army in 1936, became the gun that won WWII.
My vote for a National Pistol of America would be the M1911 in .45 ACP designed by John Browning, with the Model 1873 Colt Single Action Army Revolver designed by William Mason and Charles Richards for Colt as a close runner-up.
For National Shotgun of America, I would lean toward the Remington Model 870 Wingmaster pump-action shotgun introduced in 1950, with the Remington 1100 semi-auto shotgun introduced in 1963 as a close runner-up.
For National Machine Gun of America, hands down the winner would be the Browning M2 Heavy machine gun, designed by John Browning in 1918; chambered in .50 BMG, and adopted by the U.S. Army in 1936, it is still in wide use by the Army to this day. The runner up in machine gun would most likely be the Thompson submachine gun, designed by John T. Thompson during WWI, and adopted by the U.S. Army in 1938.
If there was a category for the National Caliber of Ammunition for America, my vote would be for the .22-Long Rifle as the most popular caliber, as there is probably at least one gun chambered in .22-LR in every house where more than one firearm is owned by the owner.
My personal opinions aside, Rep. Barry Moore of Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District recently visited a gun shop in Troy to unveil his proposed legislation to make the AR-15 the “National Gun of America.” In researching the production numbers, I was surprised to learn that the number of M16/M4/AR-15 and their derivatives that have been produced have exceeded 15 to 20 million, making it the most produced U.S. designed firearm in history.
Originally designed by Eugene Stoner (1922-1997), this model was first born as the model AR-10 and produced by Armalite in 1957. Chambered in a .308 Winchester (7.62 NATO), the prototype AR-10 failed to win adoption by the U.S. Army against the M14 in 1957, but earned well deserved recognition for its innovations and reduced weight.
In order to meet new criteria from the Army for the next round of testing, Armalite re-chambered the rifle in .223 caliber (5.56 NATO) and the AR-15 was born in 1959. (For those that do not already know, the “AR” in AR-15 is for “Armalite.”) Meanwhile, Armalite was failing financially, and they sold the rights to the AR-15 to Colt Manufacturing, which then used their long-established connections with Uncle Sam to begin securing military and law enforcement contracts.
In 1964, Colt secured their first contract with the U.S. Army with the renamed “M16,” and the rifle would officially replace the “M14” in the Army in 1969. Every U.S. military veteran who has served at any point in the last 50 years has trained with this rifle, making it familiar, and thus desirable. Every single one of my friends that are shooters (most are veterans) own at least one, if not several.
The .223 Remington (5.56-mm NATO) round by itself is small, offering little in the way of “kick,” and what little there is, is negated by a buffering spring inside the shoulder-stock. They are accurate out beyond 600 meters with iron-sights alone, with their accuracy improved by any of the hundreds of available optic options that can be mounted to the rifle. They are a great all-around rifle for competitive shooting, hunting, plinking, or home defense.
With that, I shall concede to Rep. Barry Moore that he is correct that the “AR-15” rifle should receive recognition as the “National Gun of America.”
While he was in Troy, Rep. Moore stated that “the anti-Second Amendment group won’t stop until they take away all your firearms,” adding that “one rule to remember: any government that would take away one right would take away them all.”
Moore continued with “the Second Amendment is as American a right as freedom of speech, religion, and the press. Second Amendment rights are worth protecting and must not be infringed, and we must send a message that we will meet every attack on any of our constitutional rights.”
I would add to Moore’s statements, that every amendment within the Bill of Rights recognizes an unalienable right that pre-existed our government and that the Bill of Rights restricts our government from infringing upon. The 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms is every bit as equal as the other rights enumerated within the bill.
Therefore, every gun law; whether federal, state, or local; that in any way limits or restricts a citizen’s right to keep and bear arms is absolutely and completely unconstitutional. As Chief Justice Marshall declared in “Marbury v. Madison” back in 1803, “a law repugnant to the Constitution is void,” I believe that it is past time that we begin to strike down all of our laws that are repugnant to our Constitution.
Filed as H.R.1095 and entitled “To declare an AR-15 style rifle chambered in a .223 Remington round or a 5.56x45mm NATO round to be the National Gun of the United States” the full text of the bill has not yet been received by the House of Representatives. While noble in thought, Moore’s bill would first have to pass in the House before being sent over to the Senate, where sadly, it would most likely be shelved and ignored. Fortunately, Rep. Moore knows that it won’t ever come to be if he does not at least give it a try!