德州教堂槍殺案兇手的武器：AR 15式步槍
The shooter in a Texas church that killed 26 people Sunday used a Ruger AR-556, which is a variant of the AR-15 rifle — the most popular rifle in America.
Various versions of the AR-15 rifle have been used in some of America's most deadly mass shootings, including the Orlando nightclub shooting in 2016 that killed 49 people and the Las Vegas shooting last month that killed 58 people.
The AR-15 is trademarked by the Colt company, though other manufacturers market similar rifles under different brand names, like the AR-556 used by the church shooter. The 556 in the rifle's name is a reference to the 5.56 millimeter ammunition it uses.
AR-15s are sometimes called assault rifles, though this is incorrect because assault weapons are fully automatic machine guns and have been heavily regulated in the U.S. for more than 80 years.
The AR-15 was first developed in the 1950s and was eventually modified and adopted by the military and renamed the M16. The military version is fully automatic, meaning it will keep firing as long as the trigger is pressed. The AR-16 available for civilians is "semi-automatic," meaning the trigger must be pulled each time the weapon fires a round.
The guns are popular in America due to their reliability and their relatively low price tag. The Ruger AR-556, for example, has a retail price under $800. The guns can be outfitted with customized stocks, barrels, scopes and other accessories.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) says there are between five and 10 million AR-15 rifles legally owned in the U.S., which represents a small fraction of the roughly 300 million total firearms owned by Americans.
FBI data show that in the five years ending in 2014, the most recent data available, rifles, including the AR-15, were used in 2.4 percent of U.S. homicides; handguns, by comparison, were used in at least 48 percent.週日德克薩斯州教堂槍殺血案兇手德文·凱利使用的是一支AR-556步槍。這種槍是美國最受歡迎的AR-15步槍的一個變種。
美國一些最嚴重的槍擊案的兇手使用了AR-15的不同變種型號。這些血案包括2016年導致49人死亡的奧蘭多夜總會槍擊案和上個月發生的導致58人喪生的拉斯維加斯槍擊案。
AR-15由柯爾特 (Colt) 公司註冊商標，不過很多製造商使用不同的品牌推銷同類步槍，比如德州教堂槍殺案兇手使用的是AR-556。556指的是該槍所用子彈口徑爲5.56毫米。
AR-15有時被稱爲攻擊步槍，不過這種說法並不準確，因爲攻擊步槍是全自動武器，而美國對全自動槍已經有了80多年的嚴格監管歷史。
AR-15最早在1950年代研發，後來被改裝爲軍用，美軍將其重新命名爲M16。軍用的M16爲全自動步槍，也就是說，只要按住扳機，就可以連續發射。民間市場上的AR-16是半自動步槍，也就是說，每按一次扳機，只能發射一發子彈。
這類槍支在美國廣受歡迎，這是因爲它們的可靠性以及相對低廉的價格。比如說，儒格(Ruger)AR-556的零售價格不到800美元。這些槍可以裝上定製的槍托、槍管、瞄準鏡和其它附件。
美國“全國射擊運動基金會”(NSSF)說，目前在美國有5百萬到一千萬支合法擁有的AR-15步槍，只佔美國人所擁有的槍支總量的一小部分。美國人總共擁有大約3億支槍。
根據可獲取的聯邦調查局的最近期數據，在截止2014年的五年期間，包括AR-15在內的步槍只佔美國他殺案件所用兇器的2.4%。相比之下，手槍佔所有謀殺案兇器的至少48%。
