When talking gun control, the AR-15 comes up a lot in conversation. The weapon - and ones like it - have been used in many of the high-profile mass shootings of recent years: Aurora, Newtown and last December in San Bernadino.
In states where it's legal to buy them, AR-15's are easy to get and a pretty popular choice. The federal government doesn't track sales of the AR-15, but it's estimated that there are around 3 or 4 million out there in people's gun collections.
For more on the allure of the AR-15, we were joined by former Marine Thomas Gibbons-Neff. He is now a staff writer at the Washington Post and he's been writing about the rise of this weapon.
Interview Highlights
What's the history of the AR-15?
"The AR-15 was designed by Eugene Stoner in the late 50's. The AR, contrary to popular belief, does not stand for assault rifle. It actually stands for Arma light rifle and Arma light was a company that Eugene Stoner worked for and then it was bought by Colt and Colt still owns that copyright AR-15. It's a black rifle synthetic and aluminum, it's small weighs six to seven pounds unloaded maybe about eight pounds loaded...pretty compact and pretty familiar looking."
Some people will call this an assault rifle. The pro-gun lobby will say these are not assault rifles. So which is it?
"It's pretty much semantics but the doctrinal definition of an assault rifle is a weapon that can be fully automatic so, really a military rifle. For the AR-15 crowd who are arguing that it's not an assault rifle they say, 'This is semi-automatic and the fully automatic is the assault rifle while the semi-automatic is not.'"
Why do civilians want this weapon?
"The AR-15 has been a sporting rifle since it's inception. I mean it's popularity these days is compounded by movies, video games, two protracted wars overseas where you see this weapon in news footage...the Bin Laden raid it's an AR-15 look alike. People are interested in it as hobbyists who want to maybe experience that part of the military. People want to defend their homes with a weapon that has been proven overseas and at the end of the day a lot of people just really enjoy being able to put 30 rounds out of a rifle barrel relatively quickly and the fact that you can customize these things..."
Has there been a shift in culture that has brought us to this point?
"We've had the second amendment, we've had guns in our culture for a very long time...I think there's this kind of subculture where gun advertisers really promote this to a certain crowd: movies, video games...I feel like it's really easy to say that as a kind of blanket statement...and you know there's probably a certain level of fear, right? I mean there's this kind of overseas threat, there was September 11th, maybe you're going to need one of these to defend your home."
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
*Answers have been edited for clarity.