This video is yet another example of why I have the US media with a white-hot passion. It isn’t news. It isn’t even opinion. It is just flat out propaganda.
This steaming pile of crap literally checks off every propaganda box the left has been spewing for years.
The video start off with a voice over saying “This is what an AR-15 sounds like.” Then we are treated to footage of a white-haired gentleman shooting an AR-15 at a gun range. Of course he shoots it like an 86-year old grandmother would. He is leaning backwards instead of squaring-up and leaning slightly forward like anyone who has ever fired any kind of rifle would do. He also is holding the rifle with the stock away from his body, instead of pressed against his shoulder. Why is he firing the weapon in such an awkward and unorthodox way? So the gun will recoil back violently while causing his whole body to shake. The whole point is to make the AR-15 seem ulta-violent and scary to people who don’t know any better. Holding the firearm like this, his line of vision is nowhere near the sights of the rifle. So clearly, he is not even bothering to aim his shots. As an extra added touch, he flinches and winces with each round fired. At the conclusion of what surely has to be one of the most pathetic displays of firearms technique ever recorded, we are introduced to a retired Army General.
Why did they choose an Army General? Propaganda value. It’s the video equivalent of the argument from authority fallacy. This isn’t just another crazy leftwing anti-gun activist talking (or so they want you to believe.) He is a military man. He must like guns and support the 2nd Amendment. He just wants you to realize how extraordinarily dangerous and scary the AR-15 is. And how it should not be allowed in civilian hands. He is just for common sense, is the implied message. Of course it is all bullshit.
For starters, the AR-15 is not at all violent to shoot. In fact, one reason for it’s popularity is it’s exceptionally low recoil. Recoil in the AR-15 is much less than a typical hunting round and pales in comparison to a 12-guage shotgun. The AR-15 is easy for smaller people and people who are possibly older and frail to shoot safely and effectively. The .223 Remington ammo it (most usually) fires is quite mundane and actually kind of wimpy for a rifle round. So why did the US military choose it? Because it had just enough ballistic power to barely pass their requirements. It is much smaller than the round it replaced, so troops could carry a lot more of them. And the low recoil greatly improves the accuracy of fully automatic fire because it is much easier to keep the sights on target.
Then we hear about how the AR-15 looks almost identical to the fully automatic M-4 adopted by the military. And, yes, it does look virtually identical. So what? Functionally, it is not at all identical. The M4 has burst and fully automatic modes. The AR-15 does not. So despite the visual similarity, the two weapons are far from being equivalent. He also says some people buy the AR-15 because it “looks cool” like the military guns. Which is almost certainly true. Again, so what? People buy products all the time for stupid reasons. That doesn’t make the product bad. Otherwise, we would ban all the cars with spoilers.
The General goes on to say that gun collectors and gun aficionados (?) should be able to own AR-15s. Really? Maybe this will be a balanced and informative piece after all?
NOT! The General then goes on to demonstrate how the gun can be fired “on full semi-automatic.” This is a meaningless (and utterly stupid) term invented by the anti-gun crowd to demonize the AR-15 and make it sound more exotic and powerful than it actually is. The fact a military man would use such a term and then do a “demonstration” tells you he is more interested in propaganda than information and facts. What is the difference between the “normal” mode and the “fully semi-automatic” mode??? The video doesn’t explain. But the difference is in “fully semi-automatic” mode the general pulled the trigger faster. I’m sure the reason they failed to explain this is not because it would have made them look deceitful and stupid. Maybe they were pressed for time.
The reporter explains how the defining characteristic of the AR-15 is the speed and power of it’s bullets. The 223/551 does zip along at a pretty good pace… typically around 3100 fps or so. As a rifle round, it is far from extraordinary though. Many hunting and target rounds match or exceed that velocity. And the power part is a flat-out lie. One of the down sides of the 223/556 is it’s lack of ballistic power. Power is a function of speed and mass. While the 223/556 has pretty good velocity, the mass of it’s little 55-62 grain .22 caliber bullet is far less than most hunting and military rifle rounds. Less mass means less energy. And energy is how the destructive potential of a bullet is measured. The military switched to the steel-pointed “green tip” ammo specifically because of the ballistic short-comings of the original round and it’s propensity to bounce off of helmets and body-armor at longer distances.
In case there was any doubt this was a propaganda piece, the General then goes on to repeat one of Joe Biden’s whoppers. The AR-15 can “literally tear out the inside of the body.” What is meant by this exactly is unclear. At least he didn’t claim it would physically remove organs like Creepy Joe. Nor was it explained how the wounds caused by an AR-15 are different than any other rifle. Apparently, the .22 caliber bullets know what kind of gun they have been fired from, and can adjust the damage they inflict accordingly.
The General goes on to describe a soldier who “was shot in the shoulder and had the bullet come out his ass.” Again, how rifle bullets ricocheting off of bones is somehow unique to the AR-15 is left unexplained. Lee Harvey Oswald must of had an AR-15 along with his Mannlicher-Carcano. How else to explain the deflection of the Magic Bullet in the Kennedy assassination if the AR-15 is the only rifle that fires a bullet that doesn’t always go straight through a body?
The whole thing is just chock full of lies and deceptive half-truths: the AR-15 was not a precursor to the M-4, it did not used to be a “weapon of war” in the sense that is has never been issued by any military that I am aware of, it does not meet the definition of an assault weapon (so they call it “assault-style” to confuse), and on and on….
Fuck CNN. Fuck all of the lying propagandists and narrative-pushers that call themselves “journalists.”