Busting the Myth of the AR-15

By Allen Forkner, GunBroker Publisher

The all-American rifle has earned its share of myths, starting with its name, which does not stand for assault rifle.

Few firearms stir emotions quite like the AR-15 and all its variants. The true all-American rifle has been around for decades yet is a constantly evolving platform. The base firearm has spawned dozens of variations, with the M4, M16, AR-10 among the most famous.

It has also been a favorite target of politicians and activists, who often show their ignorance of the functions and instead focus on the cosmetics. Due to this, there is a lot of misunderstanding and flat-out misinformation on the AR out there. Chief among these are the initials A and R.

Politics at play

For those more concerned with banning it, the AR in AR-15 has been branded to mean “assault rifle,” which is inaccurate for a few reasons. But the term is inflammatory on purpose, as the general public has a preconceived idea of what assault rifles “are” and that was by design.

For the record, most neutral definitions of an assault rifle stem from the initial German Sturmgehwer, which loosely translates to assault rifle. It was coined to define a shoulder-fired, man-portable rifle, chambered in a smaller caliber than the battle rifles of the day, with the capability of full-auto or burst fire. The MP44 was one of the first successful attempts at this concept.

Both Mikhail Kalashnikov and Eugene Stoner took this concept and ran with it, giving us the proper AK47 and the M16.

Origin of the “AR”

The AR-15, however, got its start as a semi-automatic platform, chambered in .222 Remington. This was later changed to .223 Remington and 5.56mm NATO when it’s full-auto derivative became the M16. Later many M16s and M4s did away with the full auto setting and instead featured a three-round burst.

At first, the department of defense did not see the AR as a sound base for a new military rifle, preferring the then-issued M14 chambered in the much more powerful 7.62 NATO (.308 Winchester) cartridge.

In fact, were it not for Gen. Curtis LeMay, then the U.S. Air Force chief of staff, and his love affair with the new “plastic fantastic” rifle, we may never have seen the platform adopted. His initial order of militarized AR-15 Sporters for the USAF Security Patrol (and his effort to get the rifle into the hands of President John F. Kennedy) kept the program afloat until the Department of Defense saw the light.

What does AR-15 stand for?

As cool as it would be if AR stood for some top-secret endeavor, the truth is really a bit more boring.

In 1954, Eugene Stoner was the chief engineer at Armalite, a well-respected firearms manufacturer. It was in this role that Stoner designed several firearms, including the AR3, AR9, AR11 and AR12. None of these designs really took off, but you may notice a similarity in the naming convention.

His AR-10 platform, however, had legs and the design was later reduced in size and caliber and this new model was known as the Armalite Rifle, model 15. Or AR-15.

The longevity of the AR-15

So, there you have it. It’s just that simple. Armalite Rifle 15, AR-15. And the platform has endured far longer than people think. In fact, the duration of time between the invention of smokeless gunpower and the first AR-15 prototype is the same amount of time that has passed from the introduction of the AR-15 to today.

America’s rifle continues to evolve and improve with each generation, but at the very core lies the same Armalite Rifle 15 that Stoner created. A genius design from a legend in the firearms industry, that is still misunderstood almost 70 years after it was first introduced.

About the Author

Allen Forkner has been fascinated by firearms and their usage since he sat on the living room playing with his G.I. Joes. After a decade as a newspaper journalist and time spent as a political communications director, he entered the firearms industry where he has spent more than 15 years telling stories of firearms, ammunition and optics, as well as the brands that manufacture them. Currently, he is the publisher of the GunBroker editorial department. He stays active in the shooting sports as a competitive handgun and multigun competitor and never passes the chance to take a shooting class.