I don't own an AR-15 yet

[Plane]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/family-of-ar-15-inventor-he-didnt-intend-it-for-civilians/ar-AAh7hM9?li=BBnb7Kz

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ar-15-rifles-are-beloved-reviled-and-a-common-element-in-mass-shootings/ar-AAh01UH


These articles are getting it wrong ,

The AR-15 was available to the public before it was adopted by the military.

But before 1994 the AR-15 was not nearly as popular as more recently.
It had been available since 1950 but before 1994, it was never used in any mass shooting.(Please correct me if I am wrong.)

Since 1994 sales have been ridiculously high for this weapon, but for what reason?

Not really because ex- soldiers with M-16 experience wanted it , were this the truth it would have been in great demand since the sixties, instead of waiting until the mid ninetys to get noticed and sell in great numbers.

Not really because the manufacturers have peen massively pushing them, half of these rifles are made by companies too small  to advertise outside their region. There is no need to push a product that some other agency is making popular.

So why did the AR-15 skyrocket in sales and popularity and become the choice of several murderers since 1994?

I think it is because it was banned in 1994,and during those years it got loads of free advertising , and perhaps most of all its capabilities were  exaggerated by politicians and media.

  A gun that could really do what is claimed the AR-15 could do I would want one too.

    In short , the gun banners made the AR-15s reputation overblown, and thus ensured its success.  .

[Plane]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/12/03/military-style-ar-rifles-market-saturated/19836755/

Fearing an outright ban, gun buyers stampeded stores, cleaning out shelves and driving prices up to nearly $2,000 a rifle, particularly for models based on the popular AR-15 platform.

... co-owner of On Target indoor shooting range and gun shop in South Asheville, says his sales of ARs have "come to a screeching halt," but not because people no longer want the rifles.

"The market is saturated. The market is flooded with them,....Everybody ramped up, thinking they were going to be outlawed, and lo and behold they weren't."
 

Ahhh HA! This article has a lot of the points I was looking for.

So think about this , if this weapon is being aggressively advertised , how many of these adverts have you seen?

The pusher in chief is BHO, nobody makes a better commercial for the thing.
http://www.courant.com/business/ar-15/hc-haar-ar-15-it-gun-20130308-column.html

....It's made by dozens of manufacturers....

...It was 50 years ago, in 1963, that Colt Firearms sought and later got federal permission to modify its automatic AR-15 for sale to civilians as a semi-automatic rifle. Since then, especially with an explosion in the last 10 years, the weapon has gained popularity in a sweep of events that reads like a cultural history of the last half-century — because that's what it is.....

...... and, finally, the election of President Barack Obama, coinciding with an anti-government movement of gun-rights advocates convinced they must be ready to defend themselves.

.... cultural tides raised the AR-15's popularity, as did gun control debates. The greater the threat to its existence, the more the gun sold. Gun manufacturers were not surprised that demand has spiked since the Newtown tragedy. Some models are selling for many times their pre-Dec. 14 prices — if buyers can find them at all....

...."The perception in the gun-buying public at that time (1970) was that the caliber and the rifle were relatively useless," said an engineer who worked at Colt. It was derisively called "the mouse gun" or a "poodle-shooter."

.......a period of 10 years that patents weren't worth taking out," said the retired company engineer, who asked for anonymity. "And it was a big mistake."

That year, 1990, Colt's Manufacturing Co. made 36,000 AR-15s that were not for export or military use. All other companies combined made about the same number, according to federal records and surveys by the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

Colt..AR-15... production rising to 48,000 in 1995. But many, perhaps most. of those guns were sold to law enforcement agencies, not civilians...

[sirs]

I do......now   

[Plane]

I do......now   

   What sort of advertisement or discussion made you aware of this rifle?

[Christians4LessGvt]

Plane...I inherited 6 of those suckers from my brother...all made by COLT.

I really think we should put the AR-15 on Mt. Rushmore!

[sirs]

I do......now   

   What sort of advertisement or discussion made you aware of this rifle?

It's a colt, and I was in the market for not a carbine, but simply a semi-automatic rifle, that could also serve as a sniping rifle.  Happened to go to a gun show with a specific type of rifle in mine......nearly got a G-36 replica, that fired .22 rounds.  Then I saw this Colt, with a heavier accurized barrel, at a fantastic price.  Sold me.  Purchased it, with a few extra magazines, along with a nice scope.  Walked right out with it, ready to mow down anyone that looked cross-eyed at me (added that last part for xo, since I'm sure that's what he thinks happens at gun shows).  But in actuality, I waited my mandated waiting period, and following additional paper work at the store, and written exam, only then did I get my Colt. 

[Xavier_Onassis]

I have owned two Colts in my time.

Both of them branded as 1974 Dodges, manufactured by Mitsubishi.

Made by the folks who brought us Pearl Harbor.

[sirs]

I was offered 2 colts....one to drink, and 1 to ride.  I declined both

[Plane]

  How are these particular rifles being chosen by mass murderers?

   I think it is the fuss made by the politicians and press .

    There are really much cheaper guns able to produce equal mayhem, guns that the press is not making such a fuss over.

    Since this is how it works , lets let the press fuss about a gun that is even more "deadly", but really isn't. Perhaps we can get the next sap to buy something useless.

[Christians4LessGvt]

  How are these particular rifles being chosen by mass murderers?

Note: Just to be accurate, the Orlando IslamoNazi DID NOT use an AR-15 in the mass killing of Infidels.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Tell us what he used, then.

[sirs]

A sig sauer semiautomatic rifle....that has no interchangable parts with an AR-15

[sirs]

[Plane]

  How are these particular rifles being chosen by mass murderers?

Note: Just to be accurate, the Orlando IslamoNazi DID NOT use an AR-15 in the mass killing of Infidels.

Ok.

I still want to have this point considered , that all the education this guy had about guns was what the press has discussed and the politicians had demagogued.