The allure of AR-15: ‘I know I don’t need it.’
FABIAN Rodriguez was cradling his new rifle when he stopped at one of the gun- show booths to purchase a US$ 5 ( RM19) chicken fajita MRE.
The “Meal Ready to Eat” is a mainstay for troops on combat missions. But Rodriguez, a 28year- old San Antonio native who sells auto paint for a living, wasn’t going anywhere that would require one.
“I like them,” he said. “Well, I like watching reviews of them. That’s something people do online, like, open them up and do taste tests.”
Rodriguez, who wears his handlebar moustache slicked into points and never leaves home without his cowboy boots, had come to the gun show to buy his first AR-15, a variant model of the M-16 and M- 4 assault rifles that are used by the military, and currently the most popular rifle on the market.
It has been only a few weeks since a 19-year- old was accused of storming into a Florida high school with his AR-15 and shooting 34 people, killing half - the latest in a recent spate of mass shootings by men armed with similar rifles, including a massacre that left 26 dead at a church outside San Antonio last September.
But this is a gun that Rodriguez has wanted for a couple of years now, a gun that he thinks has been unfairly maligned because of a few people’s bad actions, and a gun that he believes is his right to own.
He’s here this weekend not because he worries about an imminent ban, but because he just sold his Mustang and finally has the cash.
Rodriguez is among the sprawling population of American gun enthusiasts who own or aspire to own an AR-15, the semiautomatic weapon that the National Rifle Association has designated “America’s rifle.”
For some, the weapon is useful for hunting or protecting their home. But for a loyal band of thrill- seeking followers, the sleek, militaristic design and customisable features make the high-powered rifle simply fun to own.
Rodriguez has long been a gun enthusiast. He learned how to shoot when he was in elementary school, and he purchased his first gun at 18.
He also loves the military. Growing up, Rodriguez viewed people serving in the armed forces as superheroes. They were the ultimate good guys in the fight against evil. They were the ones risking their lives abroad to protect American freedoms.
Rodriguez never joined - he’s not much of an athlete, and at the
I like them.. .Well, I like watching reviews of them. That’s something people do online, like, open them up and do taste tests. Fabian Rodriguez, gun buyer
end of the day, it sounded kind of scary.
Instead, he went to trade school to study auto-body repair. He learned more about guns through YouTube, got a job and settled into a responsible life with a gun hobby on the side.
Now it’s Day Two of the monthly gun show at the San Antonio Event Centre, and Rodriguez is taking his time.
The expanse of tables before him display AR-15s, AK- 47s and every other sort of assaultstyle rifle; hefty shotguns and sleek, modern hunting rifles; handguns that range from high calibre Smith & Wessons to tiny Derringer guns that fit in the palm of your hand.
He makes his way past boxes of ammunition, T- shirts that say things like “CNN IS FAKE NEWS,” and a US$1,900 Magnum Desert Eagle that he immediately recognises as the gun Angelina Jolie carried in the movie “Tomb Raider.”
“That specific one she used in the movie was 50- calibre, which is humongous,” he says.
He finds a strap for his AR, and a quick- disconnect for the strap. He inquires about lefthanded adjustments and revisits the table where yesterday he purchased an AR-15 magazine engraved with the “Don’t tread on me” snake logo, just like the one pictured on the worn leather wallet that he is now again removing from his pocket.
“Can I still get that discount if I bought one yesterday?” he asks the vendor. “Yeah, the two for US$ 35?” Rodriguez nods. “I remember you,” the vendor adds, as Rodriguez hands him the cash for another magazine, this one engraved with the words, “You can’t protect the First without the Second.”
Rodriguez’s mother doesn’t understand this interest of his. So when they spoke on the phone last night, he told her about the gun show, but not about the AR15, because he knew it would just make her mad.
She doesn’t like guns, doesn’t like the idea of “her little boy” – as Rodriguez is certain she still sees him - spending his money this way.
He has tried to convince her otherwise.
“It’s satisfying,” he says. “It’s a bit expensive. But it’s fun, it’s safe, and you’re not doing something dumb.”
He explains that he likes the way he feels in control of his body when he’s at the shooting range: “It steadies you.
It’s calming. Being out there, it’s one of the very few places, I can say, that you can go and see improvement almost immediately.”
But his mother wants to know why he wants to carry a handgun around, why he needs it.
She worries about the implications of the view her son shares with the NRA: That good guys with guns are necessary to stop the bad guys with guns.
“‘What about those people who go to try to stop (an attack) and get killed?’ “Rodriguez says his mom asked him again last night. “What if you die?” she wanted to know.
Rodriguez reassured her that few people find themselves in that position, and that one person who did - the former NRA instructor who rushed to confront Devin Patrick Kelley last year as he gunned down dozens in a nearby church - didn’t die.
But even if Rodriguez did end up in that position - even if he did die, he told her - “Can you think of a more honourable way to do it than trying to save people’s lives?”
In all of his 28 years, Rodriguez has never faced such an opportunity or a need. He never fell victim to a crime or witnessed a shooting.
His life has been pretty tame: He got good grades in school, played the tuba, and happens to be a pretty good country western dancer and Scrabble player. He never skipped class and never got in trouble.
He joined the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps as a teen but not the military. — WPBloomberg