Of course, no one really knows. But I am trying to make some educated guesses based on the data that is available. In Light Over Heat #121, I gave some estimates. Then following the posting of that video, the gun violence reporting initiative, The Trace, provided some additional data I used to update the estimates once again in Light Over Heat #122.

Some bottom line, minimum estimates on AR-15s from round 1:

• At least 1 in 20 American adults (5%) own them, i.e., at least 12.5 million people.
• At least 1 in 5 gun-owning adults (20%) own them.
• There are at least 23 million in circulation, and probably closer to 28 million or more.

More details in Light Over Heat #121.

This week, The Trace estimated that there are 392,000,000 million guns in circulation in the U.S. Based on that total gun stock, there are at least 27 million in circulation, owned by at least 16 million American adults.

See the calculations in Light Over Heat #122.

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This leads me to ask the following questions:

When I use this gun, responsibly and unproblematically, should I feel complicit because others do not? Am I morally obligated to push for greater regulation on buying and using it because others misuse it? Should I feel obligated as a good citizen to give it up, knowing that it is associated with death, injury, and abuse? Am I putting my individual rights before the common good?

Actually, when I wrote those words, I wasn’t thinking about a gun I own. I was thinking about all of the alcohol I own and drink. I don’t “need” it, but I enjoy it and use it responsibly, even though I know others do not. Alcohol is a leading risk factor for homicide and suicide. It claims some 140,000 lives annually, more than guns, in fact. It is implicated in social ills like crime, criminal violence, child abuse, intimate partner violence, and many other adverse individual and social outcomes. It is extremely easy to get most places in the United States, easier than guns, in fact, limited only by how much money you have to spend.

This leads me to ask the following questions:

When I use alcohol, responsibly and unproblematically, should I feel complicit because others do not? Am I morally obligated to push for greater regulation on buying and using it because others misuse it? Should I feel obligated as a good citizen to give it up, knowing that it is associated with death, injury, and abuse? Am I putting my individual rights before the common good?

Last weekend, I went on a writing retreat to finish the final manuscript revisions for my book, Gun Curious (subtitle TBD). I got through the preface and 8 of the 10 chapters. I didn’t make it to the conclusion, but I also skipped a chapter in the middle. I revised the introduction, then chapters 1 to 3, then chapters 5 to 8. I skipped chapter 4.

Chapter 4 is called “Living with AR-15s.”

I left for my retreat on Thursday, October 26th. On Wednesday, October 25th, a gunman with an AR-pattern rifle killed 18 people in a Lewiston, Maine bowling alley and bar.

The entire issue of guns in American society is fraught, having become a political wedge issue, the AR-15 in particular. So fraught, in fact, that I thought about dropping the AR-15 chapter from my book altogether. What good can come from trying to write thoughtfully about an issue that is so emotional? And rightfully emotional because the sight of someone walking into a bowling alley with a rifle and shooting people is sickening.

Full stop.

In addition to being awful, mass public shootings like Lewiston and Uvalde and El Paso and Sutherland Springs and Sandy Hook and elsewhere raise a lot of questions. I try to answer some of them in my chapter. The central question being, why do civilians own AR-15s?

Even closer to home, why do *I* own an AR-15?

This returns me to the thought experiment above about owning a particular gun and using alcohol. What responsibility do I have as a citizen for the havoc and harm caused by other people who use these things harmfully and irresponsibly? Should I voluntarily give up this socially evil product for the good of my fellow citizens? Should I advocate for laws prohibiting ownership of a product responsible for the death of hundreds of people annually (in the case of AR-15s) or a hundred thousand people annually (in the case of alcohol)?

I know it makes a difference emotionally, but in the final analysis does it make a difference whether the dangerous product kills fast or slow?

That is a sincere question, one of many about guns, alcohol, and harm that keep me up at night as I think about living with AR-15s.

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I had finished a complete draft earlier in the year and circulated it to a couple of friends for feedback, including one who is very much on the side of banning “assault weapons.” This feedback was really helpful in understanding how my work will be received by an audience I sincerely hope will read the book (gun skeptics) and some points I needed to clarify for their sake.

Between finishing that draft and doing the revision, some other things happened that influenced my revision. Another two high-profile civilian mass public shooters used AR-pattern rifles, at The Covenant School in Nashville (7 killed, 1 injured) in March and at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas (9 killed, 7 injured) in May. I also attended two events in June at which “assault weapons” were discussed, a firearm law works-in-progress workshop sponsored by the University of Wyoming Firearm Research Center and Duke Center for Firearms Law and a Vail Symposium conversation on gun violence.

Most recently, while I was browsing bookstores to help brainstorm subtitles for Gun Curious, I saw that a long-awaited book on the AR-15 by two Wall Street Journal reporters, Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson, had finally been published. Coming in at 380 pages of text, it was a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing because I knew it would give me material for my own chapter (I ended up citing it 11 times). It was a curse because the timing could not have been worse. I had allocated 4 days in total to revise my chapters, but it would take me 2 days just to read the book and 2 days to digest it.

To help my digestion, I started writing a review of the book. I ended up writing 5,000-words, which I pared back to a mere 4,400. While that review is in the hands of a potential publisher, I recorded a “brief” summary of my thoughts on the book for “Light Over Heat” last week. I put brief in scare quotes because the review itself is about 11 minutes long.

My TL:DR is that the book should have been titled, The AR-15: From Stoner to School Shootings. The authors address Stoner’s design, the military’s adoption, and mass murders’ use of the AR-15 well. But they do not do justice to the true story of why normal people own and use these guns to do normal things.

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As I was concocting my plan, I consulted — as I do with all important gun-related things — with my friend John Johnston of Ballistic Radio and Citizens Defense Research fame. I told him I wanted to build a rifle for Sandy based on a lower receiver engraved with “NASTY WOMAN” and “SHE PERSISTED.”

John suggested it would be imprudent to build this into a functioning rifle for anything other than fun. In the improbable but not impossible event that Sandy had to use the rifle for self-defense, she would not want a rifle with these phrases entered into evidence.

So, I ended up having Infectious Design (again) engrave and Cerakote (in pink champagne, Sandy’s favorite drink) the lower receiver and gave it to Sandy as a 7th anniversary gift (on 02/20/21) to use as a paper weight.

I was really pleased with how it came out and Sandy was very touched by the gesture.

With John’s guidance, I ended up constructing a rifle for Sandy consisting of Bravo Company USA BCM® MK2 Standard 14.5″ Mid Length (ENHANCED Light Weight-*FLUTED*) Upper Receiver Group w/ MCMR-13 Handguard (with some other fancy do-dad options) and a Primary Weapons Systems MK1 MOD2 Complete Rifle Lower. I snapped the two halves together, topped it off with an optical sight, back up iron sights, and a weapon mounted light, and the rifle was good to go.

Of course, to make it a proper Feminist Assault Rifle, I took the lower to Infectious Design to have it engraved and fill painted in Sandy’s preferred pink champagne color.

The Feminist Assault Rifle came out great and I was happy to be able to use have my Sociology of Guns seminar students shoot it during our class field trip.

I am not a big rifle guy, but I hatched the idea of building an AR pattern rifle for my wife and customizing the lower receiver for her. I bought four unfinished lowers (for $37.95 each in May 2019, now charging $129.95 given the Biden Administration) and had them shipped to a friend for bead blasting, engraving, and painting.

He wasn’t able to paint them as we had hoped, so he mailed them back to me and I set about finding a local company to finish the job.

Honestly, I was worried that gun businesses, tending toward political conservatism as they do, would not want to work on lowers reeking of liberalism. So I started with a Gun Culture 2.0 commemorative lower I had my friend engrave.

A number of companies in North Carolina do custom work, but I settled on a local custom coating business called Infectious Design.

I drove out into the country, past countless Trump and MAGA flags banners (and an occasional Jo Jorgensen law sign), to the large steel building next door to the owner’s home. I wore the Combat Shooting and Tactics hat Paul Howe gave me so they would know I was a friendly. Matt Lance didn’t seem to notice the hat as he greeted me and welcomed me inside his shop.

I talk about having my lower receiver “painted,” but Infectious Design specializes in Cerakote finishes. Although people use Cerakote as a verb like we used to use Xerox to refer to photocopying, Cerakote is actually a brand of ceramic based finishes that is able to adhere to metals and plastic.

Like going into a Sherwin-Williams store to look at paint chips, I was overwhelmed at the number of different colors available, including something called “prison pink.”

For my Gun Culture 2.0 lower receiver, I chose a metallic silver finish with red and blue fill on the engraving. I could not have been happier with how it turned out.

Of course, I began this post talking about an AR style rifle for my wife, so stay tuned for a following post on how that project turned out.