The weapon is used in a large number of mass shootings in the United States. It was also the gunman’s weapon in the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania. But the Republicans we met have no intention of changing their minds on gun control.
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It is one of the best-selling weapons in the United States: the AR-15 rifle, used by the shooter on Saturday, July 13, during the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, is in the sights of Joe Biden, who called for it to be banned this week. This semi-automatic rifle has been used in a large number of mass shootings in recent years in the United States and has become a symbol of the debate on gun control. In Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, this weapon is popular with Republican voters. However, it almost cost their candidate his life.
Even in this city, it’s a sensitive subject. All the gun shops and shooting ranges we asked declined to comment. So we discreetly recorded a salesman in a gun shop located on the upper floor of an old building. He’s wearing a red T-shirt with the now-cult photo : Donald Trump, bloody ear, raised fist.
“The AR-15 is like saying ‘Kleenex’, people know you mean a tissue.he explains. But basically it’s the name of a company and it’s become part of everyday language. There are lots of different models but the original version was created by the company ArmaLite rifles.” The military version of the AR-15 is the M16. This weapon accounts for a quarter of all gun sales in the United States and costs just over $1 500 dollars.
The seller lets us try this weapon. “It looks super light but it’s quite heavy, sturdy,” he observes. When you hold this rifle in your hand, you could think you were at war or in a video game.
Zach just bought, with his father Butch, the “anti AR-15” : an AK-47. “If I show up with my gun at a ranch with Trump supporters, I’m going to be laughed at for using a cartoon weapon. The AK-47, the Kalashnikov, that’s for terrorists, Russians, bad guys,
whereas the AR-15 is like John Wayne’s Stetson hat back in the day. It’s the equivalent today, it’s part of the culture, it’s not a tactical rifle, but ‘tacticool’.”
The AR-15 is like big pickup trucks or American flags. : a symbol that Republicans are appropriating. And knowing that Donald Trump was almost killed by this weapon, “I think it’s actually super ironic,” Zach believes. On the other hand, the ban has very little meaning and impact for them. For his father Butch, “It’s easier to blame the gun, it’s cheaper to point the finger at the gun than to set up a health system, to have a healthy society that can hold a gun properly.”
In the United States, nine states prohibit the purchase and possession of assault rifles, including the neighboring states of Maryland and Delaware.
Report from Pennsylvania by Valentin Dunate and Fabien Gosset