Ah, the Venerable AR-15!

Back in the 1990s, several hundred years ago, the rage was the AK-47 assault rifle. At the time, the AK-47 was blamed for all bad things, including high tides and illness among the cattle. Today, of course, the AR-15 is the dreaded bogeyman weapon.

What a curious firearm the AR-15 is: if you want to get a bunch of gun people arguing over absolutely nothing, throw the phrase AR-15 into the conversation. AR-15 people will argue over anything. While they all agree the AR-15 is not an assault rifle, a lot of us will suggest it isnt even a rifle, but a weapons platform.

The AR-15 is the more-or-less fifteenth ArmaLite, Inc., Rifle (AR-15…get it?), developed by Eugene Stoner, an uber-Tony Stark, back in the late 1950s. Yes, it has been around that long. The rights were sold to Colt, who produced its first batch of AR-15s in 1959. The United States military loved the weapon and adopted it under the name M16, which you still hear today. You should note that the M16 is a fully automatic rifle intended for combat use; the AR-15 is a semiautomatic rifle that is designed by and for civilian use.

Whats so cool about this weapon platform? It is the truest hotrod rifle in the world. If there is anything you dislike about this rifle, you can change it.

	Dont like that carrying handle on the top? No problem. That comes right off and you can put a traditional scope on it to make it a hunting rifle.
	Or forget the scope and go with traditional rifle iron sights.
	Dislike the forearm? Well, that part comes off in about two pieces, and you can put on a different one that gives you a better grip.
	Or, heck, you can put mounting rails on that forearm and add lights, grips, and other shooting aids if you like.
	If you dont care for the stock, you can change that out. Telescoping stocks are very popular these days to make the weapon fit better into your shoulder.
	You might change the magazine while you are at it to something easier to use. This one is easier to change out, holds more ammunition, and feeds bullets more reliably.
	Some people hate the grip, so they change that, too.
	Folks change the barrels, too. Some like them longer; many people like them shorter. In fact, you can even change how the barrel feeds spent gas to load the next bullet. This can make for lower recoil, or a more stable shot, or reduce weight.
	If you want to change out the middle part of the gun, too, you can. This one has had the upper and lower receivers changed out completely to fire a different caliber of bullet. Some people want low-cost, easy-to-shoot .22 bullets. Others ramp up the power and trick out their AR-15s to shoot the bigger 7.62mm round. And yes, there are folks who change the entire feeding mechanism of the weapon to fire the mightly .50 bullet.
	Hate the color? You can change that, too.

Let us review. You can take the basic AR-15 you see at the top of this post, change the stock, the grip, the sights, the barrel, the upper receiver, the lower receiver, the grip, the trigger, the forearms, the way the gun fires, what it fires, and the color. You can even change the materials its made out of, how the recoil works, the weight, and how it feeds bullets. Want crazy? You can change every single part of the weapon. Here is, no kidding, one of Sarah Palins AR-15s. It fires a .50 Beowulf cartridge, has a smaller grip for her hand, is made of special steel, and, yes, has pretty much every part changed.

This incredible ability to customize the weapon has actually made it incredibly hard for liberals to ban the weapon: you can outlaw any part of it and the owner simply changes that part out for a legal one. Of course, the real reason to do so is that you can make an AR-15 truly your weapon.

But if you change out every part of it, at what point does it stop being an AR-15 and become, well, something else? Nobody knows.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.